Reflection
by Tragically Hopeless
Summary: Two halves of the same whole - that's what Atemu and Yugi were. Many things may have made them different from normal twins but there's one things that always set them apart and it isn't that they were separated most of their life. They loved each other but nobody ever seemed to understand it... Puzzleshipping
1. Prologue

**Damn, has it really been just over two years since I posted the first version of this chapter? It seems like it was no where near that long, honestly. But many of you - if you're still actually remotely interested in this - will be pleased to know that I will be posting more to this! It might take quite a while for me to get to any new content though because first, I'm rewriting the entire thing. Mostly because my writing style has changed a lot since then. I'll probably drop "With Love" though. Unless there's a sudden interest in it, which isn't too likely. And if any of you enjoy Hetalia, then you can always read "Tear Me Apart" which will hopefully be getting updates too!**

**Right, now I'm rambling. Well, enjoy the new and improved prologue of Reflection~!**

A/N: Yes, a new story, despite not finishing the NaruGaara story that I started so long ago. Oh well, I promise to finish this one, I swear! Please review, I'll give cookies.

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**Reflection**

_Prologue_

* * *

A little boy cautiously sneaked across the hallway, scared to get caught. His parents were yelling downstairs and were almost definitely under the impression that he was fast asleep in his bed. Just like he should be. But this was all too scary for him. All he could hear were the shouts and the screams intertwined with words such as "demon", "cursed", and "death".

The boy knocked on the bedroom door across from his own and quietly whispered, "Are you still awake, mou hitori no boku?"

He almost crawled back to his room when he didn't get any sort of response right away. It was scary, so, so scary but he could brave through it if he had no other choice. Then the door slowly opened just a crack to reveal his mirror image standing there. The only difference between the two of them were the colour of their eyes. It was a relief to see his brother, his other half standing there. He smiled hesitantly at the other boy, only to flinch as there was a particularly loud yell coming from downstairs. It never seemed to end lately.

"What's wrong, aibou?" the crimson eyed brother asked, looking worriedly at his twin.

The other brother's amethyst eyes quickly started to water at the reminder of why he had come across the hall in the first place – something that he wasn't allowed to do, no matter what. His brother quickly pulled him into the bedroom. The light was off but it was a source of comfort to him instead of a source of fear. He was a lot more scared of what would happen if his Mama found him in here again.

"Why do Mama and Papa have to fight with each other all of the time? I don't like it when they fight. You can make them stop, can't you, Atemu?" the amethyst eyed twin asked, innocently.

Atemu bit at his lip as his brother wiped the tears from his own face, and pulled his twin into a tight hug. Tears were stinging at the backs of his own eyes but they didn't matter as long as the amethyst eyed boy was crying. He would do anything that he could to make his brother stop crying. If only anything would work. His brother would into more trouble if he went down there and tried to stop them from fighting now though, and that was almost worse than the crying itself.

"I don't know, aibou," the crimson eyed twin said, wisely, "I wish I could stop them but then Mama will go do bad things to you again and it hurts you and so I can't let that happen. Even if they're yelling really loudly."

The other twin whimpered slightly and both of them climbed into the bed. It was dark out, after all, and both of them would have to get up bright and early the next morning for daycare. Even if Mama and Papa kept them up all night with their yelling and screaming. No one other than the four of them needed to know just what happened inside of the house. Or at least, that was what Papa told them all of the time and he didn't really want to tell the nice lady at the daycare what Mama was doing to his brother.

They laid down so that they were facing each other. The amethyst eyed twin whimpered softly as he heard his Mama yell out something about a devil. He focused back on Atemu instead, just as their fingers intertwined together. It was just like he had seen the people around the town and the people in the movies do. But those people were a lot older than him and his brother though, and those people were always in love with each other too... whatever that meant. He didn't really know.

"Do you love me, mou hitori no boku? The same way that Mama and Papa love each other?" the amethyst eyed brother asked, innocently, "Because I love you like Mama and Papa love each other."

"No way! I love you in the way that Mama is supposed to love Papa because she doesn't really love Papa. I wouldn't ever hurt you or yell at you the same way that Mama hurts and yells at Papa," Atemu admitted, proudly.

The crimson eyed brother wiped the tears away from his twin's cheeks. He really did hate it when the amethyst eyed boy cried almost more than anything else in the whole entire world. Even more than skinned knees and their parents arguing, but not quite as much as he hated it when Mama was being mean to his brother. He looked helplessly at his twin for a moment before quickly pressing their lips together, just like he had seen other people do before.

"Mou... mou hitori no boku?" the other twin asked, his tears slowly stopping.

Atemu blushed and nodded slowly. At least the amethyst eyed boy had stopped crying now. The shouting from downstairs was still as loud as it had been a couple of minutes ago though, but it suddenly seemed far away and distant from them. Not nearly as important as it had seemed just a couple of seconds ago.

"I love you, Yugi. My aibou," he whispered, squeezing the other's hand lightly.

A matching flush filled Yugi's cheeks and his amethyst eyes widened. His hitori no boku was so important to him and so kind to him too. But didn't that mean that he should show Atemu that he loved him too? Shyly, he leaned forwards and quickly kissed his twin, not really understanding the meaning behind it. Not that the other brother had. His earlier sadness had completely faded away though, now replaced by the odd fluttering of his heart in his chest.

"I love you too, Atemu. Mou hitori no boku," the amethyst eyed boy whispered back.

Yugi's eyes closed and his breathing quickly evened out as he fell asleep. It was always so easy to fall asleep when he was beside his twin. Atemu would protect him, no matter what happened. Even if he was completely unaware that his twin was blushing darkly and gingerly touching his lips with his free hand. The crimson eyed brother really hadn't been expecting his twin to return the action. But it wasn't long after that before he fell asleep too.

It was a few weeks later that everything went to pieces. Their mother left their father and they were separated from each other. Atemu went with their mother while Yugi stayed in their hometown with their father. Both of them had been told that they would never see each other again, that they would just have to live with the way that things had turned out. Their mother had even gone as far to leave town entirely. Their perfect little dream was completely shattered in fits or screaming and tears with no way to ever completely return it to the way that it used to be.


	2. Fifteen Years

**Heh, it's been another couple of months, hasn't it? Well, I'm more than certain that you could entirely blame that one on me. I don't mind. There's quite a few things different with this chapter, and the rest of the story will probably vary until I actually go and edit it like I should. This is probably going to end up taking a lot longer than I'd like for it to, but I do have other things to do with my life. Including finishing Tear Me Apart. I will try my best to move as quickly as I can! Enjoy!**

A/N: Hello, again. It's only been 5 days... that's not actually that bad, if I do say so myself. Well, here's another chapter of "Reflection". Oh, and before I forget (again), I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh! or any of the characters. Thanks for the reviews, and please review again.

* * *

**Reflection**

_Chapter One: Fifteen Years Later_

* * *

Amethyst eyes stared out of the car window, watching as the world zoomed past them. Their surroundings were slowly changing from the long, seemingly never-ending highway to the busy highrises of the city. He was biting at his bottom lip, rolling it anxiously between his teeth. It had been almost fifteen years since the last time that he had seen any of this and to be honest, he couldn't really remember anything that happened before his parents split up. Vague memories of a young boy that had shared his features filled his mind.

He hadn't seen his twin at all in the years since his parents divorced. Nothing more than old photos hidden away in the back of his father's closet. Chances were that if he hadn't found them than he wouldn't have even vaguely remembered the crimson eyed boy; he probably would have dismissed those early memories as nothing more than a fantasy or a dream. He would have obliviously gone through life completely dismissing the empty feeling that sometimes overwhelmed him entirely.

But now he knew.

He just hoped that he'd be able to find his twin in this huge mess of a city. Especially after he'd come this far.

"Stop worryin' yourself to death, Yug'. What was it that ya always tell me? Things always work out for the best or some other shit like that?"

Yugi jumped at the suddenly spoken words, having completely forgotten that he wasn't the only person in the car at the moment. He glanced over at the blond man sitting in the driver's seat, who was, in turn, glancing over at him every couple of seconds or so. His shoulders dropped at the sight, and he went back to biting his bottom lip once more. He really hadn't meant to make his best friend worry, especially when in a short little while they would be roommates as well.

That was the last thing that he wanted.

"Everything has a reason and that reason is what makes everything worthwhile," the amethyst eyed man recited with ease, "It's just... so hard, Jou. I barely remember him and that's only because of the photos. What's to say that he'll remember me or that he still even lives here? I might not be able to find him here."

"You'll find him, Yug'. I know ya, and ya won't give up for anything, even when it seems to be the obvious choice," Jou replied, confidently.

"Thanks, I... really needed to hear that. I do hope that you're right though."

The blond man seemed to relax at his words, and Yugi focused back on the rapidly changing scenery moving past them. He knew that Jou was rather worried himself, even if it wasn't about the same things that he was worried about. His best friend was more worried about what he would if his twin wasn't the person that he hoped that he would be. If the crimson eyes twin was cruel and didn't even give a shit about him.

In other words, everything that he didn't think was even a possibility.

The scenery suddenly changed again as they drove into an underground parking lot. Amethyst eyes blinked as his eyes slowly adjusted to the sudden darkness around them. His hand slipped into his pocket, gently grasping the cool metal of the key that he'd received the week before. The numbers "411" were etched into it as clear as day. The key was the only evidence of the joint birthday and Christmas present that the two of them had gotten.

The car slowed down to a stop as they parked in one of the parking spaces available for them. The two of them sat there for a few moments, soaking in the moment. In a few minutes, they'd be upstairs in their new apartment with no one else around. No parents, no neighbours that they'd known for years and years, and no other friends except for each other.

"Ready to go, Yug'?" Jou asked, slowly putting his hand on the door handle.

Yugi nodded slowly as he opened his own door and climbed out of the car. The moist smell of the parking lot assaulted his nose as he took in the lot filled with cars, cement, and artificial lighting. The trunk of the car opened with a click and he struggled slightly as he pulled one of the large suitcases out of the back. Their parents had been by a couple of times throughout the week to drop off the essentials but this was the first time that they'd actually been here themselves.

The trunk clicked again as it was closed a few moments later. Jou followed him as he headed over to the elevator after he grabbed his own suitcase with considerably more ease than Yugi had. The amethyst eyed man pressed the button for the elevator, and he couldn't have been luckier as it opened immediately. The two of them stepped inside, Yugi leaning against the wall of the elevator while the blond stood beside him, slouching slightly.

Nervousness welled up in him as the numbers slowly went up on top of the elevator door. His own place, even if it was being shared with Jou. He was about to enter his own apartment for the very first time in Domino City; far, far away from the small town that he'd grown up in. And he couldn't help but think about his twin wandering around the city, somewhere, just waiting for him to find him. The elevator finally opened a few moments later, and within seconds they were standing outside of apartment 411.

Their apartment.

Yugi stood there for a few moments, his hand on the doorknob. His suitcase was right beside him and the key was in the lock. But he couldn't quite bring himself to turn it. The moment that he did just that, a new part of his life would begin. And hopefully he would be able to regain a part of his old life... a part that he could barely even remember anymore.

"Come on, Yug'! We can't just stand here, waiting for the door to open itself," Jou suddenly complained.

Only it seemed like his best friend wasn't quite as sentiment as he was about this entire thing. He rolled his eyes at the stereotypical complaint before he finally turned the doorknob and opened the front of their new apartment. Jou quickly pushed past him, obviously a bit fed up with the amount of time he was taking. Or rather, the blond was a lot more eager for this than he was. Granted, Jou didn't have quite as much at stake here in this city as he did.

Dragging his suitcase behind him, he entered the apartment and closed the door behind him. Jou was standing there, in awe, just a few feet in front of him. The apartment opened up to the kitchen with the living room area on the other side of the room. At the very far wall, there was a sliding glass door with a small balcony. And then to the right was a small hallway that undoubtedly led to the two bedrooms and the bathroom. All of it was theirs, without even a single doubt. This entire place would be their new home.

"It's perfect," the smaller man murmured, "I didn't think that it would be this perfect."

"Neither did I," Jou whispered, before grinning, "I call the bigger bedroom!"

Amethyst eyes rolled as the blond man ran off into the small hallways, his suitcase throwing itself back and forth as it rolled behind him. There was no point in trying to stop his best friend, he'd never make it there in time to stop the other and Jou was just so stubborn when it came to these sorts of things.

His own suitcase was set to the side for the moment and he started to look through the apartment. He had already been well aware that Jou's mom had been here before they had been given the keys earlier that day, but he hadn't been aware of how much she had brought over here. Cheap dishes filled the cupboards, a few dishtowels were laying around, and there was even a cheap toaster on the kitchen counter. Not to mention that there was food already in the fridge along with a note on a nice, Saran-a-wrapped dinner saying "love you". Jou's mom had really gone all out in the past day or two.

Finally, he decided to go find his own bedroom, his suitcase rolling nicely behind him. The room in front of him was foreign, he realized as he opened the door but it wouldn't be for all that much longer. His gaze wandered along the queen sized bed and the wide window. He realized, a moment later with a sense of glee that it overlooked a nearby park.

A knock on the door suddenly made him jump, even though there was only one person that it could possibly be.

"Oh yeah, Yug', I forgot to say! Happy Birthday!" Jou exclaimed, a grin on his face, "No, I'm going to see if there's any food around here."

Yugi's eyes widened and his expression melted into a grin. But before he could thank his best friend, the blond was already long gone, shouting about the food that he had found earlier. He really shouldn't be so surprised, really.

* * *

A crimson eyed man leaned against the counter of a small coffee shop, his chin resting on the palm of his hand. It was a stereotypical Thursday afternoon for the shop with only a few people lingering around. Which was all the better for the man at the counter. He didn't exactly enjoy wearing a pink, frilly apron and the white haired mess up of a friend cackling away in the back room wasn't exactly helping him in that regard.

He rolled his eyes as a couple started to make out with each other in the back of the shop, trying his very best not to glare at them. It wasn't like it was their fault that it had been over a year since the last time that he so much as kissed another person outside of drunken interactions. That wasn't anyone's fault but his own, really. If someone could even be blamed for that.

"Quit your pouting, it's only for the day and then you can go back to wearing the regular uniform," his best friend informed him, before bursting into laughter once again, "It's been two weeks since your birthday, after all! So it's no doubt that your so-called 'birthday luck' ran out!"

Yeah, the white haired man definitely wasn't helping his mood right about now.

He almost wished that Seto or Marik were here with him instead of Bakura but that was entirely impossible. It was either Bakura or no one, after all. As his jerk of a friend was the only one that actually worked here with him. His other two friends had proper, high-paying jobs at respectable places.

"You're just jealous because you don't get to wear this sexy apron," he countered, running a hand along the pink fabric.

Bakura snorted from the back room, "Yeah, that's most definitely it right there."

The bell from the door jingled and he looked up almost immediately. A dejected looking young man walked in, looking just a bit younger than he was. The man almost seemed as if the entire world had crushed down around him. His eyes were downcast and he was biting at his bottom lip. The crimson eyes man couldn't shake the sense that the new customer was familiar to him though. That he knew him from somewhere.

He just couldn't figure out where.

"How can I help you this afternoon?" he asked, forcing a smile onto his face.

Beautiful amethyst eyes suddenly looked right at him and for a moment, he was completely breathless. That sense of familiarity was almost overwhelming him but he still couldn't even begin to place. The customer's eyes widened for a brief moment and then he shook his head, almost as if he were dismissing something.

"A medium jasmine tea and a chocolate chip muffin," the amethyst eyed man replied, his voice soft.

"Alright, that will be $5.25, thank you very much," he nodded, before muttering under his breath, "I swear that I know you from somewhere."

Flashes of a small boy ran through his mind as he prepared the hot water and put one of the large chocolate chip muffin onto a small plate. And his mother had always told him how grateful he should be that he wasn't like his twin brother. But that was completely impossible. His brother, whose name he couldn't even remember, was still living in their childhood home as far as he knew.

"Here you go," he said, handing the strange customer his order.

The young man nodded, taking it.

He watched as the strangely familiar customer walked over to one of the nearby tables, setting his bag in the chair beside him. He sighed and glanced back into the room behind him, the small staff room with its door wide open. Bakura had been awfully quiet for the last few minutes, and it was a bit suspicious. No evil cackling or loud jokes. If he didn't know any better, he'd say that the white haired man wasn't even there at all.

"Bakura, if you're sleeping back there, I swear you'll be the one wearing this damn apron next!" he called, glaring at the open door.

"Fuck, I wasn't sleeping, Atemu!" Bakura called back, before muttering, "Yet."

"I heard that!"

"You were supposed to!"

He rolled his eyes, until a quiet gasp captured his attention instead. Atemu quickly glanced towards the customers, his eyes almost immediately caught the wide gaze of the amethyst eyed man who was staring right at him. Confusion and disbelief were only a few of the things that were visible on the man's face, mixed in with a little bit of hope. Hope for what, he wasn't exactly sure but the customer had just stood up. And was walking straight for him without a doubt.

"At... Atemu?" the customer spoke up, his voice wavering.

The man looked as if he wanted to say something more, anything more but wasn't capable of managing a single word. Two names suddenly ran through his mind, not names that his mother had told him but names that Seto had mentioned when he'd asked if the other knew anything about his twin. But that wasn't possible, was it?

The chances of running into him here of all places had to be next to none.

"Yugi?" he whispered, crimson eyes wide, "Are you Yugi?"

The amethyst eyed man's expression seemed to change completely. Gone was the defeated look that had been there before, the look that told everyone of the horrible day or maybe even week that he'd been having. A wide smile spread across his face and Atemu was struck by an even stranger sense of familiarity than he had been before. He couldn't ignore it, there was no doubt in his mind.

"Fuck, that kid looks a lot like you!"

Atemu's gaze snapped towards Bakura, eyes wide. It was almost like he was surprised that his best friend had come up to the counter, when it really shouldn't have been a surprise in the least. His heart was thrumming away in his chest, beating at an impossible rate. His eyes flickered back over to the strange customer for a moment.

"I can't really say for certain but I'm almost entirely sure that that would be because he'd my brother," Atemu paused for a moment, "My twin brother, in fact."

"I... well, damn. I can't say that I was really expecting that one," Bakura admitted.

Atemu couldn't help but to look back over at Yugi, smiling over at the young man. The white haired man beside him scoffed and he almost forgot for a second that he was wearing a pink, frilly apron. Maybe this was your stereotypical Thursday afternoon after all. Well, there was one thing that he did know and that was that his birthday luck hadn't quite run out yet.

* * *

Jou leaned against the bar, his eyes scanning the crowd of people in front of him. Men and women, all half-naked in one way or another, crowded around, dancing almost as if they were a singular mass instead of over a hundred different entities. There was a drink in his own hand but he had no intent on getting wasted... at least not tonight. This was his first time here after all, although he had wanted to check this place out for the last few weeks now.

"Why, hello there, sexy. You must be new around here; I don't think that I've ever seen you around before."

A body pressed up against him and he glanced over, his eyes widening at what he saw there. It was a woman standing there beside him, her hair long and blonde and her lips full and red. And then she looked at him through those long, dark eyelashes of hers, her violet eyes staring right at him. She was more gorgeous than anyone else that he had ever seen.

"I am new here, actually. Just moved to the big city with a friend of mine a couple a weeks ago. Would have come here sooner if I'd known that the women here were so beautiful," he commented, letting his eyes wander over her more than generous chest.

She laughed softly, the sound almost like music to his ears, "Been a while since we had any new meat around here. I have to admit that the guys around here have been getting a little bit... boring for my tastes. Just between you and me, I could use a bit more excitement in my life."

He could see her eyes running down his body without even the slightest bit of remorse. Studying him, comparing him to whatever men she had been with before him. His tongue ran over his bottom hip and he was half tempted to grab her hand and lead her to the back alleyway without another thought. That would be such a waste though... he had every intention of savouring this moment for all it was worth. A sort of celebration, in his own little way.

"I think that I could supply a bit more excitement for a small fee. A dance, if you wish, and a name. That's the only thing that I ask for," he agreed, his eyes darkening.

She leaned up, letting her lips ghost over his ears, "My name is Mai Kujaku and I promise that you'll be dreaming about me for a long time, sexy. I'll make you feel better than any little girl every could before me."

Jou grinned and took a hold of her wrist, leading her out into the crowd of people. He was definitely going to be up for a long night tonight. The music pounding around him and the alcohol running through his body; it was all nothing compared to the sweet nectar of Mai Kujaku.


	3. Too Trusting

A/N: Hehe... yeah, this did in fact come out almost three weeks after I posted the last chapter. I didn't mean to do that, I swear. I was sick for over a week... and yeah. Also, the next chapter won't be out until at least next Wednesday evening. I'm moving and so, I won't have any internet at my new house until Wednesday. Oh, I don't own Naruto or any of the characters. Enjoy, and please review?

* * *

**Reflection  
**_Chapter 2: Too Trusting_

* * *

It was a little bit awkward at the moment, to say the very least. Bakura had just left the house to go to his own apartment a few moments ago and he already felt the need to tell Atemu absolutely everything that had happened in the past thirteen years, every single little detail. Though, the atmosphere around the house would have been a lot better if his mother wasn't sitting on the other couch, nervously attempting to start up a conversation.

"Aibou, why don't the two of us go upstairs to my room and talk? We have a lot of catching up to do, and I would love it if you would show me that sketchbook you mentioned earlier to Bakura," Atemu suggested, effectively cutting off whatever it was that their mother was trying to say.

An odd frown slowly crept onto the older woman's face, as she seemed to attempt to contemplate something but the two twins completely missed it as they headed up the stairs. Not that either of them really seemed to care anyways, it wasn't an odd thing with their mother. Her emotions and thoughts were always easy to read on her face. So, the two of them slowly walked into Atemu's room, right across from where Yugi's room used to be. It was strange for Yugi as he slowly remembered all the times that he had ended up sleeping in the elder's room.

As soon as the door was closed behind the two, the younger was swept into his brother's arms as the elder whispered, "Oh god, Yugi, it's been way too long and I've missed so much, that you can't even imagine. There's so much that I want to tell you and definitely not enough time to tell you all of it. Then I can only imagine all of the things that you want to tell me."

"Mou hitori no boku, what do you mean that we only have so much time to talk? It's not like I have to be anywhere until probably late this morning, Jono won't even notice that I haven't got back until then. I still can't believe that we were actually able to rent our own apartment," Yugi asked, slowly returning the hug that his brother was giving him.

"You are not leaving Domino City any time soon? But don't you have a life and friends back in the town that you left?"

"No, the only thing that I have back there is a few friends who all know why I've moved here, and besides, they all promised on their lives that they would visit. And if you look at it another way, then I've moved here only a few hours ago and already I have the perfect place to live, my best friend, and an older brother that I have no idea how I lived without. Why would I ever leave?"

Atemu tightened the hold that he had on the other's waist as all of the fears that he had about Yugi showing up only to leave again were slowly disappearing. It was amazing to him that the younger wasn't only here for a day or two to visit, and had accidentally met up with him. There was no need for that fear of others leaving him, not anymore, even if it was still there, hiding in the background, like it had been since his twin had been forced to leave him.

"Please, stop being so scared. I'm here now, and I don't want to leave ever again, no matter what happens," his Aibou muttered against his collarbone.

"I will try, Aibou, I will try my absolute hardest," he whispered back to the younger.

Yugi relaxed a bit more, and allowed Atemu to slowly pull him onto the bed beside them. The arms that were still securely wrapped around his waist stayed there, forcing him to rest his head on the other's chest as Atemu laid on his back. Not once did it pass through either of their minds that if somebody walked into the room, that they would think that the two of them were lovers instead of twins.

One thing that did happen to pass through Yugi's mind was that unlike his friends back in his old town, Atemu didn't know about him sexuality. He bit the inside of his lip, anxiously, trying to think of a way to tell him that wouldn't make things awkward. But it doesn't take long for the elder to sense his anxiety.

"Yugi, what's wrong?" the crimson eyed teen asked, almost seeming to read his mind.

"I-It's nothing really important," the other stammered, "I had just been wondering how to tell you something, b-but I'm scared to know how you'll react when I do tell you."

"Aibou… I want to know absolutely everything about you, no matter what it is. So, don't worry, I won't judge you for it, no matter what it is."

"Then, I think that you should know that… I-I'm gay."

It was only silent for a single moment, however that moment made Yugi cringe, thinking about his brother's reaction. What if it hadn't been the right time to tell him? What if Atemu was a homophobe but he just hadn't noticed it at all? Then the laughter started. At first it started out as a soft chuckling underneath the other's breath but it soon escalated into full blown laughter in just a few short seconds. What was going on with him?

"A-Atemu, why are you laughing?" Yugi exclaimed, pushing himself off the other's chest a few inches so he could look the other in the eye.

"I am sorry about that, Aibou. I would never judge you for anything, especially not something such as your sexuality. In fact, I would be nothing but a hypocrite if I did. It was years ago that I discovered that I much preferred men over women," the crimson eyed twin explained to the younger.

Yugi nodded happily, and relaxed backed into the reassuring hold of his twin's arms. His brother not only accepted him for who he was, but he also knew exactly what the other had gone through, to some degree. It was something that his father had never been able to do, and his life had been hell for those few months between when his father had found out and when the old man had finally died from alcohol poisoning. But he was safe now, and in his other half's arms.

"So, how about you tell me all about this roommate of yours and the rest of your friends from your old town?"

* * *

It was a longer drive form the hotel to the new apartment that he was renting than he thought it would be. True, the fact that he had wanted to just stop and sleep for the next 24 hours throughout the whole four hour drive hadn't helped much, but there was nothing that he could do about the constant feeling of jet leg. And he couldn't afford to stop. Still, here he was, sitting in the next to empty parkade that was conveniently right next to the apartment building, wanting to do nothing more than sleep.

"Hey dude, what are ya doin' just sittin' in a place like this?" a blond man asked, noticeably slurring his words together.

It was rather obvious that the man was drunk, and that the giggling blonde woman that was currently attached to his side was just as drunk as the man was. Oh, if only his window wasn't stuck open about an inch or two (he really needed to fix that by winter time) so he could at least pretend that he couldn't hear the drunken man outside his car.

"I was just hoping to get some sleep in here until the morning. Then I'll be able to go get the key to my new apartment then," he explained, without a second thought.

Shit, why did he always do things like this? When a stranger would ask him a question, he would always answer them both completely and truthfully. Even if he knew that he'd probably regret it later on.

"Oh, so you'd be my neighbor then. Ha-ha, you come stay with me until then, I don't think that Yugi would mind too much," the man offered.

"But Jono, I thought that it would be just me and you," the blonde woman whined.

This was exactly why he didn't like girls, they were always so clingy. But he thought about the offer for a moment. Would he prefer to sleep on a couch or possibly even an actual bed instead of the uncomfortable back seat of his car? Yes, he most definitely would prefer to. And the man seemed like he could be trusted, well, when the man was drunk, at least.

"It's not like he'd be joinin' us or anything like that, Mai. So, are ya comin' or not?"

It took him about 5 seconds to fumble out of the car, and grab the worn backpack from passenger side seat. He didn't want to spend even another minute stuck in that car, jet legged or not. He didn't even bother to lock the doors of his car as the three of them headed towards the elevator. The whole time he hoped that the drunken woman would stop complaining to the blond man, as it was starting to give him a headache.

* * *

The very first thing that he's aware of is the burning sensation from just behind his eyelids from this oddly bright room, and that's followed closely by a familiar pounding of his head, as if someone had made it their mission to break his skull in half. It doesn't take him long after that to realize that he doesn't remember a single detail of the night before, after meeting that blonde chick, Mai or something. Though, the first clue that he had drank way too much the night before should have been the massive hangover.

"Jono, get up out of bed already! I need to talk to you," an all too familiar voice yells at him from another room.

With a slight cringe, he realizes that it hadn't been the damn annoying sunlight that was pouring through the thin curtains that had woken him from his peaceful sleep but instead, it had been Yugi. Hopefully, he hadn't done anything too stupid while he was drunk last night like leave a condom in the middle of the floor or throw a roll of toilet paper around the main living area. He had the tendency to do stupid pranks like that while he was intoxicated.

So, in order to get away from Yugi's wrath (not that it would be the first time that he's had to face it, or even the 2nd or 3rd) he slowly scrambled out of bed, and into the kitchen, after slipping on a pair of boxers. Besides, he knew that nobody would have been kind enough to put any ibuprofen in the bathroom yet.

After he had an ibuprofen, and had poured himself a cup of coffee, he fixed his attention to the counter. Yugi was sitting there eating a couple of pieces of toast, not looking angry at all and while that was surprising, it wasn't the strangest thing he noticed. A guy about their age, probably a couple years older, was sitting there, his white hair making him stand out. Plus the guy seemed vaguely familiar as if he'd seen the guy in a distant dream or something of the sort.

"Hey Yugi, I see that you made a new friend yesterday when you went out," Jono comment, wincing at the way too loud sound of his voice.

"You really were wasted last night, weren't you?" the blond shrugged, it wasn't as if it were a secret, "I wasn't the one that invited him over here, Jono, you were," the tri-colour haired boy informed him.

The blond looked back and forth between his best friend and the buy who seemed like a complete stranger to him, other than the strange feeling that he'd met the guy before. The guy wasn't paying any attention to the conversation that him and Yugi were having, and just kept devouring the food in front of him, as if he hadn't eaten in days. Why would he have invited this guy to spend the night here? That's when his mind started to jump to conclusions.

"Uh, I didn't invite you over so that we could, uh, well, you get the idea, don't you? Cause you know, the last thing that I remember from last night is hitting on this hot chick who definitely wasn't you, at least, I don't think it was," he exclaimed, motioning in every direction with his hands.

Yugi burst out laughing at the Jono's reaction and answered for the white haired boy, "No, you didn't invite him over for that, Jono. There was a beautiful blonde that left here about an hour or two ago who said that she'd slept with you last night. It seemed a bit like she was bragging about it but that's not why I'm upset with you. You invited a completely stranger over to spend the night, not even for a one night stand or anything, and without even knowing the guy's name. No offense, Ryou."

"None taken," the white haired guy responded, struggling to swallow the last of his breakfast.

"Eh, I'm sorry about that, Yugi, but you really should know by now that I'm in no way responsible for any of the things that I do while I'm drunk like that," the blond commented.

Yugi's amethyst eyes roll and his attention is turned towards the half eaten piece of toast that's still in his hands. It would really be helpful if Jono didn't go out and get wasted like he did the night before, at least until both of them were able to get a job. Maybe getting the other to read the ads in the newspaper every morning would help with that.

"Oh right, I haven't introduced myself to you, yet, have I?" Jono shrugged, he didn't really remember, "Well, my name is Ryou, it's nice to meet you. And thank you for letting me spend the night here," the white haired man introduced himself, smiling cheerfully.

"I'm Jono, it's nice to meet you too, Ryou… Just out of curiosity, why exactly did I invite you to spend the night here?" Jono asked, cheering up slightly as the ibuprofen started to kick in a bit more.

"Well, I can't say that I'm completely sure why you asked me. I had just been sitting in my car for a few minutes before I was going to go get ready to sleep in the back seat of my car for the night. Then you and that girl came over and asked me what I was doing sitting in the car all alone. And then here we are now," Ryou explained.

It was then that all three of them came up with the conclusion that while Jono may be a complete idiot for inviting a stranger into his house, drunk or not, Ryou was way too trusting to accept the offer from a drunken man. However, unknown to Jono and Yugi, it definitely wasn't the first time that he had realized that, and probably wouldn't be the last time either.


	4. Unsolved Problems

**A/N: A new chapter of Reflection. Hmm, I wonder if you can guess who Atemu's old friend is... Oh, and have I mentioned that I think everyone that's reviewed, favorited, and alerted this story is amazing? Because it's true. Please review.**

* * *

**Reflection  
**_Chapter 3: Unsolved Problems_

* * *

He wasn't exactly sure what to think when the door to the store opened, the telltale sign of a customer showing up. However, the surprise and confusion faded as he realized that it wasn't any real customer at all but instead it was Yugi, and a friend of his. Both of them were chatting away, barely even noticing that he was standing there bored to death. There was something about Yugi's friend though, that just completely started to draw him in. Maybe it was the fact that they looked so much alike except for the air of innocence that the other carried around him, one that he would really enjoy turning into something completely different.

"Good afternoon Bakura, it's nice to see you. Atemu wouldn't happen to be working this afternoon, would he?" the short amethyst eyed boy asked him.

He held back a laugh at the question, the kid was right to the damn point as usual.

"Sorry kid, it just so happens that today is his day off. You know, it's a bit rare but he does get one of those every once in a while. Now then, are you going to introduce me to this friend of yours and then maybe, oh, I don't know, buy something, or what?" he answered, eyeing Yugi's friend.

The white haired kid looks a bit upset that Atemu isn't there but it's absolutely nothing compared to how upset Yugi looks. It wasn't surprising though, the two of them weren't just brothers but twins, and before last week they hadn't seen each other in over a decade. Not that that was hard to forget, with Atemu complaining about the span of time once every week or so.

"Oh yeah, I guess that he does need to have a day or two off every once in a while, I just wasn't expecting him not to be here. I'll just phone him later then. This is Ryou, by the way, he started renting out an apartment right by ours the day after we moved in. And Ryou, this is Bakura, I mentioned him to you earlier," Yugi explained.

Ryou smiled at him, and it didn't take a genius to figure out that the guy is blushing, though he figures that it most likely isn't voluntary on his part. It distracts him though, and he barely catches Yugi's order or even the smile that's somehow found its way onto his face. But he does hear it, barely, and calls to the other worker to start making the hot chocolate.

"Bakura, I would like a small coffee and one of those cinnamon buns with cream cheese, please," Ryou requests, more politely than he had seen in a long time.

The way that his name just seems to roll off of Ryou's tongue makes him want to ravish the boy right where he stood. He resisted the strong temptation though, because Yugi was right there. And if Yugi saw it than Atemu would know, and he'd never be able to live it down. But when the beauty gives him a $10 bill to pay for the order, he gives him the exact same amount in change, making sure that he made contact with the other's hand. The blush colouring Ryou's face making him even more appealing, he figured out.

"You don't have to worry about paying, Ryou, it's on the house, courtesy of me," he told Ryou, as he tried to give back some of the change.

Yugi rolled his eyes at the small scene and his annoying coworker was snickering off in the background, clearly seeing his odd behavior. Oh, screw it, he no longer cared about what Atemu would do once he heard about any of this. Something holds him back from bluntly asking Ryou out or placing a firm kiss on those pale lips like he usually would do. For some odd reason, he actually cares what this boy will think of him once he walks out the door. And in the end, he still doesn't know what to think about these two customers. Or at least one of the two.

* * *

Ryou had never had that much luck with his friends. Most of them would eventually lose interest in him once they discovered that he didn't have some ridiculous hidden depressing part of him or he would be forced to move to a different town, once again. And so, because he had never really had any friends before now, he had also never had a boyfriend, or even a girlfriend for that matter. Sure, he knew his own preferences but he had never really gone on a date before. Well, except for that one time where the person asking him out had meant it as a joke, which really hadn't turned out well at all.

So, that was why he was standing outside of Yugi and Jono's apartment, hesitating. Were the two of them sick and tired of him showing up every morning? Sure, it had only been a week but it had been every day. Or what if Yugi and Bakura had some horrible past that he was unaware of, and he accidentally brought up bad memories when he planned to ask about the guy? It was really annoying him, but soon enough he was able to ignore the questions and knock on the door.

"Ryou, the door's already open! I'm already making pancakes too, if you want any," Jono yelled from the kitchen.

He could just see Yugi rolling his eyes at the blond man, or maybe even scolding him for yelling inside, and to use an "inside voice". Once he smelt the delicious smell that had carried its way from the kitchen area, all of the previous hesitation he had disappeared and all other coherent thought went along with it. Who would have thought that Jono of all people would be a really good cook?

"Good morning, Ryou," Yugi greeted with a smile, as he sat down at the kitchen counter.

Three plates were already out on the counter, including the half empty one that was right in front of Yugi. It looked like they had actually been expecting him to show up in the mornings. Maybe they didn't actually mind him coming over all the time like this? Or was it just that they expected him to show up now, whether they actually wanted him to or not?

"Good morning, Yugi. How was that job interview that you had yesterday evening?" Ryou asked, shoving the questions to back of his mind.

"I got the same response as before. They told me that I had a great resume but that they didn't think that I was suited for the job, and then sent me on my way. Oh well, the boss seemed like a real bitch anyways. However, Jono got a job as a waiter at some fancy restaurant downtown."

"How did you manage that one, Jono? Those types of restaurants are usually unbelievably picky with who they hire, no matter what you have on your resume."

Jono turned around, away from the stove, a crazy grin on his face, and a plate full of pancakes in his hand. "I only got the job because of my crazy awesome skill at being a server. Well, that and I was a server at a fancy restaurant back in our old town."

Yugi rolled his eyes and shook his head at his friend but not once did he deny that Jono had "crazy skill" at being a waiter, or a server, as the blonde seemed to like to call it. Ryou guessed that this meant that Jono was actually good at the job. And it was a bit surprising seeming the only other things that he seemed to be good at was cooking, being stubborn, getting drunk, and recovering from hangovers. Oh, and attracting a certain clingy blonde woman, he couldn't forget that one. She had been over at the apartment once or twice already since the first time he had ever seen her a week ago.

"Hey Ryou, snap out of it. You already devoured all of the food on your plate, so there's no point in attempting to get the non-existent crumbs on your plate, seeming you already ate all of them," the tri-colour haired teen teased.

When the white haired man looked down in shock, he realized that all of his food had in fact disappeared from his plate, not a single crumb left in sight. "Sorry about that, I was just that the list of things that Jono is actually good at is incredibly short and it's also full of things that you don't actually need. Such as the ability to attract ridiculously beautiful women but are way too annoying to actually be able to hold a conversation with or at least one in particular, Mai."

Yugi burst out laughing at the joke, but Jono was quick to defend the girl. "Hey, don't insult her like that. She's actually rather funny and smart and so good in bed that the two of you would never even begin to be able to imagine it. She's got a big heart too, when she tries."

"Well then, that's all the better for you then. Especially seeming I doubt there's any chance of me or Yugi even wanting to find out just how good she is in bed, seeming we're gay, and not just bi like you are."

Jono started to pout and became overly attentive to the pancakes sitting in front of him, shoving them into his mouth. It was then that Ryou knew that he couldn't come up with a comeback that was better than the one that he had just given him. Soon enough, Yugi stopped laughing at Jono's expense and the room fell into a strange state of silence. None of them even dared to try and break it. And slowly, as he had nothing to distract himself with, his mind drifted back to what he had been think about earlier.

"Do either of you think that it's annoying how I come over here every morning and eat breakfast with you guys? Because I can just start actually eating at my own apartment instead of here," he blurted out.

Both of the others turned to stare at him, as if he had grown a second head or had started sprouting off random nonsense for no reason at the top of his lungs. Were they really that shocked that he thought they might actually think that? Or was it that they just didn't expect him to realize what a bother he truly was? Or – he tried to stop thinking, the endless possibilities going through his head was just making this waiting even worse.

"Why would you ever think such a thing, Ryou? We aren't the type of people that would just let you keep coming over every morning if we didn't want to actually be friends with you, and I'm sure that I'm speaking for both of us when I say that we like you coming over in the mornings like this," Yugi tried to explain.

Jono smiled softly. "What Yugi is trying to say is that if we didn't like you than we would have already blown up at you for eating so much of our food all the time. But because we do like you, we don't actually care that you eat so much. So, keep coming over like this. Just, oh I don't know, maybe buy some groceries for us sometime or buy us dinner one time to make up for it."

Ryou's brown eyes widened as he realized that these two actually did care about him, and just didn't keep him around for some selfish reason or another. He was so into trying to make the thought process through his mind that he didn't notice Yugi glare over at Jono and then snap something at his and then vice versa. In fact, it wasn't until several minutes later that he finally snapped out of it, the doorbell going off in some tune making him finally come to his senses.

"Atemu!" Yugi called, his eyes somehow lightening as he raced towards the door. Ryou noticed that this was the happiest he had ever seen his friend.

Atemu? Where was it that he had heard that name before just now? But before Ryou was able to figure out where he'd heard that name before, a man walked into the room, Yugi walking happily beside him. The differences between Yugi and the man were few, only consisting of a bit of a height difference, sharper exotic crimson eyes, and a jaw line that wasn't as round and soft as Yugi's was. And that was when Ryou remembered, Atemu was Yugi's twin that he had gone to meet yesterday with Yugi.

"You must be Ryou, Yugi here has mentioned you quite a bit these past few days," Atemu commented.

"It's nice to finally meet you, Atemu. I have to say that Yugi has probably talked more about you to me than he has mentioned me to you, though," he responded.

Yugi started to anxiously spit out words and uselessly tried to deny that he had ever mentioned either one of us to the other one. He was completely ignored as Atemu sat beside Ryou at the kitchen counter, in the only available seat left.

"How would you like some pancakes, Atemu? There's still plenty of batter left here, Yugi and I are full, and I'm sure that Yugi's mentioned that Ryou's stomach is somewhat similar to a black hole, so he's not getting any more than the 7 or 8 that he's already devoured," Jono asked.

"No, I'm fine, Jono, I had breakfast before coming over here. I would have saved some room for some if I had known you were making them though. Maybe another day," Atemu responded.

It was quiet again for a few minutes as Jono started on the last 2 pancakes that were left on his plate and Yugi ignored everyone, still upset about how his twin and one of his friends had turned against him. Or at least, that was how it had happened in his mind. Atemu and Ryou both just sat there, awkwardly waiting for someone else to start a conversation.

"So, mou hitori no boku, what brings you out to our apartment this morning? I hope that nothing happened," Yugi asked, finally giving up on attempting to ignore the two.

"No, you don't have to worry, Aibou, nothing happened. There are just a couple of things that I felt the need to talk to you about and they gave me the perfect opportunity to slip away from the house and our overbearing mother for an hour or four," the elder twin responded.

Ryou really began to notice just how close the two twins were. They really didn't act like twin who apparently hadn't seen each other in over a decade. In fact, they acted closer than any other siblings that he had ever seen, twins or not. And this was including the relationship he had shared with his younger sister, which had been many years ago.

"So, what was it that you wanted to talk to me about, then?"

"Well, first things first, an old friend of mine from school was complaining to me last night that the shop his family own really needs some new, more experienced employees. It's an art store, so I was thinking that it would be in your line of expertise and all."

Yugi's eyes brightened and he practically seemed to glow at the thought of working at an art store. "Of course I'd like a job at a place like that, it would be wonderful. Can you give me the name and number of the place later? Then I can phone them and send in my resume sometime soon. This really is great, Jono has a job at a restaurant downtown and I might be working at an art store."

Atemu looked over at Jono, who was leaning back in his chair ever so slightly and half-listening to the conversation. "What's the name of the restaurant that you're working at, Jono?"

"Hmm, oh, the name of the restaurant is actually kind of wacky. It's called 'Blue Eyes White Dragon', but what's even stranger is that my boss seems to be a 15 year old," Jono commented.

Atemu looked back over to Yugi, and Yugi's eyes suddenly widened in realization. Jono looked back and forth as Yugi suddenly burst out laughing for the second time, and Atemu just smirked, as if he was holding some big secret. Sure the name of the restaurant wasn't exactly normal but was it really that funny?

"Seto is running his uncle's business now? And then even getting Mokuba to do all of the other work like going job interviews, it's all so stereotypical of him. That's just hilarious," Jono looked at Yugi in confusion, "Oh yeah, Jono, the 15 year old wasn't really your boss, he was actually your boss's younger brother, and mine and Atemu's cousin. Trust me, you're going to, uh, like the guy all right," Yugi commented, his laughter boiling down to innocent giggles.

"Alright then…? So, Atemu, what was that other thing that you wanted to tell Yugi about, then?" the blonde asked, trying to change the subject.

The elder twin's expression changed from a smirk into a small annoyed frown. "The other thing that I came over here to talk to you about if that Mother wishes for you to join us for dinner this Sunday evening, Yugi."

An odd tension suddenly appeared in the room, making Jono and Ryou both wonder just how much of a delicate subject Yugi's mother was. But on the twin's side of things, it seemed that they were having a small wordless argument, neither side wanted to lose to the other side. Finally the tension disappeared, and the argument ended, with Yugi sighing and breaking eye contact from his older brother.

"Fine, I'll go. But I'm only going to be nice if she's going to be."


	5. Unknowing Bliss

**A/N: So, here it is, Chapter 4. Not that there's anything too special about it... except 2 more characters are introduced. I'm hoping to update again before Sunday evening, but if I don't make it, then my next update will be at least after the 24th, maybe even later than that. Oh, and thanks for all of the reviews, alerts, and favourites that I've had so far. But no matter how happy I am for all of the reviews, I would still love it if you review again or... for the first time. I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! or any of the characters.**

* * *

**Reflection  
**_Chapter 4: Unknowing Bliss_

* * *

She drew soft, sensual circles on the blond man's strong chest as she waited ever so impatiently for sleep to overcome her. In her widely known opinion it was the worst part about having one of these types of men to sleep with. The waiting to fall asleep as her sex partner for the night slept soundly, completely unknowing and uncaring of what she could be thinking or doing while she waited for sleep. Those few absolutely horrible minutes where she had nothing at all to distract herself with, they were the worst part of her day.

A calloused hand slowly made its way down from where it had been resting on her waist and finally landed moments later right on her bare ass. Her hand stopped moving for barely a second at the dreaded feeling of the exact same hand wandering between her legs. It was rather difficult to ignore, both her disgust at the man, and the wandering hand itself. But there was nothing she could do about it. She was a Kujaku after all, and there were many people from her own family that had done so much better than her… and so much worse.

"Mmm… Mai…" the blond man moaned in his sleep.

It had not been a good idea of hers to actually tell him her real name, but when she had initially met him almost a week and a half ago, she had thought that he wouldn't last for more than a single, harmless night. And what was the harm in giving her name out to a complete stranger who didn't even know who the Kujaku family was, and would never remember the name anyways? But this guy was more stubborn than a mule, never mind any other men she had met before. She knew how stubborn so men could be from experience, but it had never been something like this.

She was the one that had gotten herself into the business though, so it was her own fault that any of this was even happening in the first place. It had been her choice to join the family business, and back then she had been a lot more naïve and had wanted to be just like her older sister and her mother and everyone else before them. Oh well, this sham of a "relationship" would be over in another 2 weeks or so, at the very most. And it wasn't like he was the only one she was seeing… and stealing from.

"Stay strong, Mai, you have to stay strong," she whispered into the night.

And then sleep finally stole her away from the torture that was reality.

* * *

The art store that Atemu had told him about was a small, locally owned shop that went by the name of "The Fine Arts". However, just because the store was a smaller one didn't meant that the store wasn't popular, in fact as he looked around, it seemed like it was the opposite that was true. Especially seeming it was about 10 AM on a Thursday, even if it was currently summer break for the schools.

Pencils and paints of all different colours were lined up on the back wall of the shop and it just seemed to make him want to walk over there and then start buying about a dozen of everything. But he was here on a mission today, and there would hopefully be plenty of time for that at another time, possibly with an employee discount too. Unfortunately, that didn't stop the sudden onslaught of ideas flowing through his mind, just thinking about what he could do with one thing or another. They were all tempting him, and calling to him…

"Hello, I'm here for the open position. Um, Atemu said that you knew that I was going to be dropping by sometime today," he explained to the blond man at the register, whose tanned skin and tattooed face certainly stood out.

"Oh, then you must be Atemu's twin, Yugi Mutou. The two of you really do look a lot alike even if you are definitely are the more innocent one, you can just see it in your eyes. Sister wants to talk to you, but don't worry too much, with Atemu's recommendation, it will be rather difficult to not get the job. Especially seeming you actually showed up. She's in the back doing a bit of inventory, don't worry about knocking or anything like that," the blonde told him, with a smile.

Yugi nodded happily and walked through the door that was barely even 10 feet away from the cash register. The room was rather nice for a back room, and it was brightly lit, with lots of different art supplies of the shelves and a dark haired tanned woman standing in the middle of it, facing the shelves.

"Hello? I'm uh, Yugi Mutou, I'm here for the job opening. The person at the cash register, um, your brother, I guess, told me that you were back here," he stuttered.

The tanned woman turned to face him, seemingly unsurprised that he was there, and her brown eyes stared through him like nobody had ever done before. "Hello, Yugi Mutou. My name is Ishizu Ishtar, and I'm the current owner of 'The Fine Arts'. The cashier that you mentioned would be my generally annoying little brother, otherwise known as Malik Ishtar. I've heard quite a bit about you, Yugi, but knowing Atemu, he has probably never even mentioned my name to you. I understand that you want to work here. Why?"

Her eyes searched him demandingly, and it was all that he could do to spit out an answer. "Well, at first I only came here for a job because Atemu suggested it to me, and he knew that it would be the type of job that I would enjoy. But once I actually got here, I realized that this place was a perfect place to mix what I love to do and a job together."

There was a tense silence for a few moments as they held eye contact, Yugi trying with everything he had to not look away from her piercing stare. For some reason, he was shocked that she was actually taking some time to contemplate the answer he had given her because it seemed like she had already known what he was about to say.

"It would be my pleasure to hire you, Yugi. Be back here at 7 AM Monday morning. Now, go tell Malik the news he's probably dying to hear before you leave, but hurry because I'm sure that Atemu's getting rather impatient waiting for you outside," she informed him, moments later.

"Thank you Ishizu, um, I mean, Miss Ishtar. I will see you on Monday morning," he answered before taking his leave.

Atemu was waiting for him outside? He had initially come to the art store by himself, mostly because nobody had been available to come with him for some reason or another, such as work, or in Jono's case, a date. Ishizu kind of freaked him out with how she seemed to know so much about him but whether or not she did freak him out didn't mean that he wasn't grateful to her for hiring him. Already he was able to tell that this job was going to be a good one, and he was happy that he was able to find a place that finally thought he was suitable for the job.

Malik was staring at him from the cash register, obviously eagerly waiting for Yugi to walk over, he reminded him somewhat of a dog waiting for its master. "So, Yugi, did you get the job?"

"Yeah, I did get the job, even without your sister looking at my resume or anything like that. Does she really trust Atemu's opinion so much to actually hire me with only asking me a single question?"

His new acquaintance randomly started laughing, as if he had just said something that was really funny, instead of a serious question. "I-I'm sorry about that, Yugi. It's just that I forgot that you have never seen how Sister and Atemu act when they're even in the same room with each other. She doesn't actually trust a word that comes out of that guy's mouth. So when he mentioned that he had a twin brother that had just moved into town and was looking for a job and also loved art, she demanded that he bring this person to her as proof. And her actually hiring you and all that just a few moments was because she's an excellent judge of character."

"I see. Well then, I had better get going. Ishizu had also mentioned to me that Atemu was getting a bit impatient while he was waiting for me. I guess that I'll be seeing you sometime on Monday."

Malik waved to him as he walked out the front door of the small shop, obviously glad for the conversation, even if it was a bit brief. And as Yugi walked outside, he was only somewhat surprised when he realized that Ishizu's prediction had actually come true. Atemu was waiting for him outside of the building, trying not to look too worried or impatient. Instead of thinking about it, he laughed softly, and succeeded in directing his twin's eyes from the ground and to himself.

"Hey Yugi, did you get the job?" his crimson eyed brother asked.

"Yeah, she wants me to come back on Monday morning for my first day. The interview only ended up being about 5 minutes long though, and it was a bit different but I got the job," Atemu smiled softly and nodded, happy for his younger brother, "What are you doing here, though? I thought that you had to work this afternoon, or at least that's what you told me last night on the phone," Yugi asked, curiously.

Atemu shrugged half-heartedly and the two of them started to walk in the direction of the small café him and Bakura worked at. "I actually am working today. It's just that Bakura was bored so he told me to take an extra 20 minutes on my break, but only if I could bring back a customer or two to the shop. So, would you like to be my customer for the day and maybe share a piece of cake or two with me?"

The younger laughed at both his brother's and Bakura's antics and nodded. "Of course I will. There's no other way that I would like to spend the rest of my afternoon. On a different topic, uh, would it surprise you at all to know that Miss Ishtar knew that you were going to be here, and that you were getting impatient?"

"You mean Ishizu? No, I can't say that that surprises me at all. Is there any particular reason why you asked that?"

Yugi shook his head back and forth, not bothering to inform his older brother of what exactly had happened at his interview. So, the two of them walked the rest of the way to the café in almost complete silence, just happy to be in each other's presence for once. With Atemu working almost all the time, it wasn't that often that they got to be by themselves, though Yugi would have much preferred it if they had gone to either Atemu's house or his apartment.

Bakura's back was facing towards the door when they walked into the small store, with one hand holding his cell phone up to his ear while the other hand was absently tracing figures into the counter. It seemed like the person that was on the other side of the phone line was the one doing all of the talking at the moment, Bakura only muttering the occasional "mhmm" or "yeah". Finally he actually spoke, still not noticing the twins that were now standing almost right behind him, who were both sharing the exact same look with each other, along with some of the same thoughts to go with it.

"Well, I guess that I'll just have to talk to you later then, won't I, beautiful?" Bakura practically purred into the phone, before shutting it.

"So, Bakura, how did Ryou's dentist appointment go this morning?" Yugi asked, as innocently as he could manage.

Their white haired childhood friend turned around in almost less than a second, and the look of shock that was on his face was almost enough to make both of the twins burst out laughing on the spot. Yugi knew that he couldn't do that though, it would completely ruin the plan that he had begun to formulate in the past 30 seconds.

"What do you mean 'dentist appointment'? Ryou never had a dentist appointment this morning that was yesterday, and then he went out shopping today because he only had a couple of t-shirts and a few pairs of jeans. What makes you think that I was talking to him anyways, kid?" Bakura carelessly demanded.

The elder twin was quick to pick up on the little game that Yugi had just started. "We never did mention anything about you talking to him, Bakura. How did you even know that he didn't have a dentist appointment this morning, or that he was going shopping today?" he didn't wait for an answer, "Are the two of you in some sort of secret relationship that you don't want anyone else knowing about for some reason?" he interrogated, with a smirk.

"Or you know if you guys aren't quite in a relationship yet, then you do know that he really is gay, right? And also that he has the tendency to go for the guys that have a bit more of a bad boy image going on?" the younger added.

Bakura quickly looked back and forth between the two of them, not exactly sure of how to react to the claims and the tiny bit of advice. "Here's the rest of the special of the day, Chocolate Supreme Cake. Now, I better not hear another fucking word about me being into Ryou, actually how about you guys don't even speak to me again for the rest of the day? That is, unless you know other things like that he's into bad boys or anything else that would be rather nice to know."

Atemu and Yugi took the delicious cake that was being offered to them, along with a couple of forks, to one of the many, many empty tables that were in the shop. They both silently laughed to themselves as Bakura once again pulled out his phone, though this time it seemed like he was texting someone instead of phoning someone. And that someone was most likely Ryou.

"The two of them are really going to be cute together when they finally do get together, aren't they? Every morning Ryou has been asking me absolutely everything question under the moon about Bakura. Though truthfully, it does make me quite a bit jealous that they both have someone that they can love and care for in that way. I've never really had someone like that," Yugi mentioned, softly.

"Aibou, that's not something that you of all people need to worry about. It's more than definite that there's someone out there, just for you, and I'm sure that there will be many jealous people out there once you do find that person, no matter who they are," Atemu contradicted him.

"But At-."

"No, but nothing. There is absolutely nothing that you can say that will change my mind about this."

He placed one of his hands on top of Yugi's hand that was resting on the table, and he took a slight guilty pleasure in the blush that appeared on the other's face, glad that it was because of his actions. Which part of what he had just said had been more true, though? That there was definitely somebody out that that was right for Yugi, and would make him happy or that people would be jealous when he found that person? The people that would get jealous meaning him.

"Thank you for that, mou hitori no boku, I really needed that. I'm sure that there's someone out there for you too. After all, how could one of us stay single while the other one is in a relationship?" Yugi teased, obviously in a better mood.

Yugi gave him a soft smile, absently wondering about the brief flash of sadness that had passed through the other's eyes as he had mentioned that there had to be someone for the other too. Did Atemu truly not believe that there was someone out there for him, or had something happened in the past few years? There was no chance of that being true though, Atemu had always seemed so confident in himself, and Yugi used to be jealous of that. When they were younger Bakura had even had the habit of calling the elder of the twins "Pharaoh" and he wouldn't be surprised if the white haired trouble maker still occasionally called him that.

A couple of moments later, the hand was removed and they continued to eat the free delicious cake in front of them, but the feeling of Atemu's hand on his still lingered for about an hour. The feeling that something was wrong with Atemu though, that didn't leave him until several days later, when it was quickly replaced by the horror of having to eat an actual meal with his mother after all of these years.


	6. Changing Thoughts

**A/N: Hmm, I have to say that I really do enjoy this chapter, it was surprisingly fun to write. No, Yugi and Atemu don't show up in this chapter but... well, this chapter was just to move stuff along a bit before the dinner. Which will definitely be in the next chapter, I promise. I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! or any of the character, nor will I ever own either of those. Well, thanks for the reviews, the alerts, and the favourites. Please, review again or for the first time, though!**

**Oh, and I would have posted this days ago but wasn't letting me add any chapters to this story. It was rather annoying, if I do say so myself.**

* * *

**Reflection  
**_Chapter 5: Changing Thoughts_

* * *

Seto Kaiba was one of the most influential business men in the City of Domino. Much to his displeasure, this also meant that he was a very busy man who had next to no time to spend with any of his family, and that included his precious little brother, Mokuba. Never mind having enough time to do some of the smaller jobs such as hiring employees at one of his 5 different 5 star restaurants throughout the city, or at any of the other places that he owned. That was what managers were for, or in some cases, Mokuba. And if anything wasn't going as well as it should have been, then the managers were fired. End of story.

So, with him being such a busy, influential business man, how come it took only one simple statement from his aunt to convince him to go to the dreaded family dinner that his aunt had put together? Being the middle of July, it wasn't as if it was anywhere near a holiday, and Mokuba hadn't even heard a single word about the dinner yet. No, the only plausible reason that he was going to this dinner was because of one Yugi Mutou, his cousin who had finally escaped from that unknown town that his uncle had dragged the boy off to.

"Mokuba, I received a phone call from Aunt Suzuki early this morning. She is inviting the two of us to go to a special family dinner this Sunday evening. Apparently, she would really appreciate it if we showed up for once," he explained to the lazy 15 year old.

"Aw, do I really have to go? It's going to be really boring, and you could always go and say that I caught the flu or something like that. What's the special occasion for it, anyways? Aunt Suzuki hates putting these things together just as much as we hate going, so she better have a really good reason," Mokuba complained, from his very comfortable spot on the couch.

"As it turns out, Yugi apparently moved back into town late last week, and will also be going to the dinner with us, but as the guest of honor. I hope that you won't find it too boring with him there."

From the other side of the room, Seto could see the way that Mokuba had brightened up at the mention of finally getting to meet his other cousin that he had heard so much about. Seeming that Yugi had moved from Domino City when Mokuba had just been 2 years old, his little brother had no memories of the younger twin. To the dark haired teen, he was just a character that starred in all of the stories that Atemu told him and he couldn't wait to be able to picture Yugi as a real person.

"Atemu always used to tell me that Yugi was one of the kindest people that he knew. Seto, can you tell me if he was telling me the truth about that, or did he just think that because Yugi is his twin brother?" the black haired teenager asked, innocently.

"There is no way that Yugi could be anything but kind, Mokuba. After all, our cousin isn't the only one that thinks the younger of the twins is one of the most kind-hearted people in the world. In fact, I'm sure that everyone that knows him thinks that," Seto responded.

The answer seemed to please the younger of the Kaiba brothers, a lot. However, much to Seto's extreme disappointment, this wasn't nearly enough to satisfy Mokuba's curiosity and instead only brought on more and more questions. The oldest wasn't about to get much more work done today, if things kept going as they were. Not that anyone but him would be even the slightest bit annoyed about that. The brothers barely got to spend any time together nowadays.

* * *

"The kid actually isn't with you today, Ryou? I thought that the two of you were almost joined at the hip with how much time you guys have been spending together. And this is two days in a row, even," Bakura commented, as he walked into the small café.

"Well, Atemu was working the morning shift today, wasn't he? So, the two of them decided to go out for lunch at an actual restaurant somewhere downtown. While the two of them were out, I had been just lying around my apartment all by myself, and so I just decided that I would come over here to see if you were here too," Ryou explained to him.

The older one nodded and started to make the coffee that Ryou always had whenever he had happened to stop at the café for one reason or another. His usual cinnamon bun was already on a plate and sitting on the counter, anxiously waiting to finally be eaten. And that was what Ryou started to do, immediately.

"So, how has your day been so far? Apart from coming here and seeing, because we both know that that has been the highlight of your day so far," he asked, with a smirk.

"Truthfully? It's been unbearably boring all morning without a single person to tease or bother. Though, I have to admit that you were right about this being the highlight of my day so far, because my day's starting to turn around a bit more now that you're here," Ryou answered, brightly.

And just like that, Bakura's day started to slowly turn around too, bit by bit, starting with how much he enjoyed the smile on the other's face. Then the annoying coworker that he was forced to work with was still his annoying coworker but it didn't seem to get to him as much. The lack of customers that had made this place boring so many times in the past, now made it peaceful and serene. And that damn horrible rut that he had been in for the last few months, bordering on a year, just seemed to disappear. And it was all because of this one boy. But Ryou didn't stop talking there, much to Bakura's surprise.

"And you know, I really am glad that I chose to come to this city instead of any other one out there. But not because here is the place that has all of the things that I craved for its schools, or the feel of the city. I'm actually glad that I came here because I was able to meet Yugi, Jono, and Atemu, but most of all, I'm glad I came to this city because I got to meet you, Bakura. I can't say that I've ever been this close to a person or felt this way before, even if we've only really known each for about a week. It feels like it's been so much longer than that," Ryou admitted, looking him in the eyes.

He wasn't at all oblivious to what Ryou was trying to tell him, he had received a lot of love confessions in the past 5 years or so, but he had answered "no" to each and every one of them. This time though, waves of unknown feelings poured through him, and all he was left with after that was confusion. Not at what Ryou was trying to tell him, but at himself for actually feeling these things. Not once had he ever thought about returning the feelings of somebody that had confessed to him.

"Ryou," he started, placing his hand on the younger's arm form across the counter "I can't truthfully say that I know what exactly my feelings towards you are, at the time, like you seem to be able to do. I'm really confused about it, actually, but one thing that I do know is that I want you to give me a shot at this. So, how would you like it if I took you out on a date tonight, just the two of us? I can pick you up at about 6."

The younger white haired man smiled at Bakura, cheerfully. It was truly nice to know that there was even the slightest possibility that the feelings he had towards the cashier could be returned, in time. Sure, the troublemaker had the habit of being a bit of a jerk most of the time, but the way that even the absolute worst of situations didn't seem to deter him even a bit, just drew him into Bakura, more and more. And who really knew what the future had in hold of them, and if this crush would turn into either "love" or "hate".

"There's absolutely nothing else that I would like to do with my evening, other than go out to dinner with you. So, yes, I would definitely love to go out on a date with you. And thank you so much for understanding and at least trying to return the feelings, and also for accepting me the way I am," he answered, quickly sliding over top of the counter and embracing the other.

Before Bakura got the chance to respond to his antics, he took it another step farther and placed a soft kiss on his cheek. He let Bakura almost completely support his weight and then let his feet completely touch the ground. It seemed next to perfect how his head was at the absolute perfect place to lean against Bakura's shoulder. It took Bakura a couple moments to get over the shock, but once he did, he returned the embrace with one arm around his waist, and the other arm around his back.

He smiled softly as he was pulled closer into Bakura's chest.

He was accepted.

* * *

She was nowhere near sure what on earth had actually convinced her to go on this stupid date, well, other than the obvious free meal, and then maybe some free clothes or something afterwards. But for whatever reason (most likely her own greed), here she was, sitting across from the same annoying blond that had been filling most of her nights, at some ridiculous café that apparently that Yugi kid's older brother worked at. Not that said older brother was even working at the moment. Still, she was completely bored out of her mind, with Jono ranting on about one thing or another. She really didn't care.

Suddenly, a hand was being waved right in front for her face, which she promptly smacked away without another thought.

"Hey, Mai, are you feeling okay? You were really out of it for a moment or two. I thought that I had lost you there, for a second," the somewhat familiar voice asked.

He never had her in the first place, but that wasn't something that he was supposed to know. "I am completely fine, Jono. Why does it even matter, anyways?" she asked, easily removing the anger from her voice.

"It was nothing really important, I had just been in the middle of asking you an actual somewhat serious question, for once," she motioned for him to go on, "I have been wondering lately, why did you choose me out of all the handsome guys in that club, the night that we had first started this 'relationship'."

Well, that was good at the very least. He actually realized that this wasn't in any means an actual exclusive relationship between two people, or at least a normal one. And as for the question, well, he had looked like a complete sucker who would undoubtedly provide her with a place to stay for the night, a bit of food, and then a bit of money straight from his wallet. Not that she could ever tell him something like that. She doubted that he had figured out that she was stealing from him because he was after all, a bit on the dumb side.

"As you well know, I can't really remember why I was drawn to you that night, I had been really intoxicated," the truth, "Maybe it was the way that you seemed to think that you were better than absolutely everyone else in the whole place," she answered, desperately trying to ignore the cashier and his boyfriend who were over at the counter, cuddling.

It was a complete lie and a rather bad one too. It was doubtful that he would actually notice something like that though. The truth actually was that way he always seemed to think that he was better than everyone else seemed to annoy her on a way too regular basis. In fact, she completely despised it.

"I can't really say that I remember why I was drawn towards you that night, either. My theory about it though, was that despite you obviously being one of the most stunning people in the room, I had wanted you to stop looking so lonely while you stood there, surrounded so many people," Jono explained, completely shocking her.

How the hell was it that someone like him was actually able to see through the act that she had so carefully put up? Why was it some idiot that completely annoyed her, the person that finally saw through it and actually cared enough to try and find out why she looked so lonely, even while being drunk? Suddenly, the thought of his knowing wasn't one that shocked her whatsoever, but one that completely angered her. He was just a stubborn little kid who was completely naïve and had absolutely no idea about any of the many things that she had gone through, all of her life. He had no fucking clue.

"How dare you even try to understand all of the horrible things that I've been through? So what, I looked a bit lonely, why would you even care about some complete stranger who just happened to look a bit lonely? You're just some naïve little boy who has most likely had absolutely everything given to him on a silver platter!" she hissed at him.

Before she was able to finish her rant, she was cut off by a sharp stinging in her left cheek, and she desperately tried to blink the tears of pain away. Once she finally gained the courage to look back up at Jono, she no longer saw a naïve little boy but instead a strong man who had had his fair share of hardships throughout his life. That was the moment when she realized that while he knew absolutely nothing about her, she also knew nothing about him or his life.

"Yes, Mai, I know that I didn't have any real reason to want to find out why you looked so damn lonely that night but I had been fucking drunk! However, you have even less of a reason to judge me because you really have no fucking clue what my childhood was like. I may not have had it as bad as you obviously did, but did you know that I was ignored by my parents for years in favour of my little sister, Shizuka? And that because of that, I used to suffer from depression, in fact, I only got over it about 3 years ago. No, I bet you didn't know any of that. Right now, I doubt that you even cared," Jono snarled, in a low, oddly calm voice.

Mai didn't respond, choosing to simply stare into her drink, whishing that Jono and everyone else in the stupid café would just go away and leave her alone. It was just plain humiliating the way that the stares directed at her just kept reminding her of everything that she had just done wrong. As much as it pained her to even think, Jono had been right about that, it wasn't her right to say anything like that.

"Look, Jono, I think that we should just leave this place, and go our separate way for today. Obviously, we both need a bit of time to cool down. I'll phone you in a few days or so," Mai suggested.

"I agree with you that it's for the best that we just leave before either of us does something that we will regret later on. However, I think that it would be even better if I phone you instead of the other way around, Mai," Jono responded, before getting up and leaving her behind at the table.

She sat there for a moment, once again completely stunned. Nobody had ever walked away from her like that. Well, nobody had except for _that_ woman, many years before. Who the hell did this guy think he was? She had never once before met a guy quite like him, and she had met a lot of guys.

"Hey, Jono, wait up for a second before you leave! Do you happen to remember that bet that we made a couple of days ago, about Bakura asking me out before or after Yugi had dinner with Atemu and his mom? Yeah, well, guess what happened? Bakura asked me out earlier today, so you just happen to owe me $20," Ryou called, from the other side of the counter.

"Really, well, congratulations then, you two, I never actually thought that I would lose that bet. Oh well, a bet is a bet, and it just so happens that I got $20 out of the bank just earlier today," Jono answered, relaxing a bit.

He saw Mai visibly tense up out the corner of his eye but thought nothing of it as he pulled out his wallet. By the time that he had opened up his wallet though, the blonde liar was already out of her seat and almost at the door. Her odd reaction was amazingly easy to figure out once he had figured out that the $20 he had undoubtedly put in there just earlier had completely disappeared, just like all of the cash he had been putting in his wallet had been.

"Don't you even dare move another foot, Mai Kujaku. I have a very important question to ask you. Is it true that you are not only an assuming little bitch but also a filthy thief and a liar, as well? I just heard about this a few moments ago but I'd like to hear it straight from your mouth, if possible," Jono demanded, in that strange calm voice from earlier.

"Damn it, Jono, you have no idea why I did it-," she tried to say.

But unfortunately, that was all that the blond man had to hear.

"Don't you fucking dare try to give me some fucking half-assed excuse, Mai! Sure, I don't know why you fucking stole from me but do I actually want to, damn it? You could have actually asked me or anyone else for money or you could have gotten yourself a job!"

He let out a frustrated yell before storming out of the small café, leaving behind 2 of his friends that were completely shocked, and a beautiful blonde woman that he'd probably never phone back.


	7. Disastrous Start

**A/N: Yeah, I know, this came out a couple days later than I was expecting it to... Oh, wait, you guys wouldn't have known that. Eh, oh well. I thank everyone for all of those wonderful reviews that I've been getting. I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh! or any of the characters, plot, anything like that. Please review.**

**Oh, and to meow (), thanks a lot for the review. And for the compliments =).**

* * *

**Reflection**

_Chapter 6: Disastrous Start_

* * *

"What the hell do you want me to do about that, Mother? Track all three of them down, and then demand that they come over here for dinner, right this very instant?" someone yelled from inside the small, two story house.

Yugi stood outside of the house on the front porch, with his hand frozen only centimeters in front of the doorbell.

Assuming that the person inside the house yelling was Atemu, he could only begin to imagine what state his mother was in. After all, she had always been the more… overdramatic one of the family. And even that was a bit of an understatement, seeming he was only about 5 minutes late to the dinner. Finally, he recovered from the shock, and rang the doorbell, now anxiously waiting for whatever wrath that his mother was about to put him through. Considering that, it was a great relief to him when his older brother was the one to answer the door.

"Good evening, Aibou. I guess that I should assume by the terrified look on your face that you heard at least some of that just now, shouldn't I?" the crimson eyed twin asked, a slight grimace covering his face.

He hesitantly nodded and mentioned, "I only heard you demanding to know what you were supposed to do about everyone not being here yet. However, it makes me a bit worried about whether or not I should fear for my life or at least my sanity when I go in there."

Atemu let out a harsh laugh at his lame attempt at a joke.

"No, I don't think that you need to worry too much. Once you rang the doorbell, I was able to calm her down and convince her to finish making dinner. I just hope that she doesn't have another similar freak out before Mokuba and Seto show up. If that happens, then you might just have to fear for your sanity."

Yugi laughed nervously, and stepped inside the house, glad to be away from the hot evening sun. He slowly started to wonder how Atemu was able to handle their mother without losing his own sanity. Or even how their now dead father was ever able to love someone like her, when his father had been the complete opposite of their mother before they divorced. It could not have been easy for either of them that was for sure.

It was a disappointingly short walk from the front door to the kitchen, where his mother would definitely be working on the dinner for that evening. She would most likely be trying to distract herself from any thoughts that might suggest that she was a bad parent, aunt, or person. But despite any actual reality, she still thought that she was a better person than anyone else ever could be.

"Good evening, mother. I'm sorry about being a few minutes late. My roommate, Jono had been asking me a few questions about the place that I got a job at a few days ago. Plus, I kind of lost track of time," he told her, trying to tread carefully.

Unfortunately, the effort was wasted because the effect that had on his mother was extremely surprising. "You're talking about Jonouchi, the filthy little brat from the other day? That shit had the nerve to show up here on Thursday afternoon, and not only did he show up here uninvited, he also actually tried to tell me that I should have a serious talk with you of all people. As if someone like him actually has the authority to try and tell me what's best for my children!" Suzuki ranted, not noticing the effect that it had on either of the twins.

"Jono came here the other day?" Yugi forced out, amazingly confused with this turn of events.

"What do you think that I'd lie to my son for no reason, Yugi?" he shook his head, "See? I wouldn't do something as delusional as that. I have no reason to do that either. Now, would the two of you be a dear and set the table for me? It would be a major help."

The twins shared a look, but both of them quickly decided that it would be for the absolute best if they just followed their mother's orders for the time being. While Yugi didn't exactly have a clear memory of the fits that his mother tended to have when he was younger, he had a pretty good idea of what they were like, between his vague memory, the stories that Atemu had told him in the last couple weeks, and what he had heard just a few minutes ago, outside of the house. However, what he was able to piece together wasn't pretty, not in the slightest.

"You aren't too worried about what's going to happen tonight, are you, Yugi? Because if we aren't extremely careful about what we say and do around her tonight then the whole thing could end up turning into a huge mess," Atemu whispered, after quickly making sure that their mother couldn't hear.

"I am a bit, but I know that there's not really anything that can stop her once she gets in one of her moods. Well, at least from what you've been telling me," he whispered back.

The two of them shared yet another look; this one resulting in an agreement that no matter what was said or done at this dinner tonight, neither of them would think any differently of the other. Without another word, they returned to setting the table, and every once in a while they ventured back into the kitchen to grab more of the food that was quickly being finished. It didn't take long at all for all of the food to be finished and the table completely set with plates, silverware, condiments, and their dinner.

"Boys, oh, where are my boys? I can't believe that this entire dinner is going to be a failure! Yugi was the only one that even showed up," their mother started to sob from the kitchen.

Atemu was the one that immediately strolled into the kitchen with complete confidence in what he was doing. Yugi, on the other hand, followed cautiously behind him, after all, he had never witnessed one of her fits in person, at least not since he was 5 or 6 years old. When they got into the kitchen, their mother was sitting on the kitchen floor, with her legs pressed up against her chest, and sobs were shaking her whole body. It was an oddly terrifying sight to see. His mother was having a complete break down over something as simple as someone showing up a bit late to dinner. But the concept that anyone had a life that didn't completely revolve around her was one that was entirely foreign to her.

"Mother, you need to get a hold of yourself, we have company here. Besides, Seto probably just got held up at his office or an emergency came up, and you know that Mokuba would never show up without him," Atemu scolded her.

She completely ignored what he eldest son was trying to tell her, and continued to mutter to herself about how everyone had abandoned her. Atemu held no sympathy for her, much to Yugi's surprise, and instead of trying to comfort her and ease her worries, he walked up to where she was sitting and slapped her across the face. Had these fits actually gotten so frequent that his brother didn't even have any pity for the woman that they called their mother? From what he had heard from his father before he had become a drunk, his mother only used to have one of these fits every couple of months or so.

"Why should I, you bastard? It's not like you or your brother actually cares about stupid old me. I bet that the two of you just think that you would be much better off without me in your lives," Suzuki whined, glaring at her eldest son.

"And why should we care about someone lie you when you act like a spoiled little brat whenever any little thing in your life doesn't go exactly as you planned it to? All you actually care about it yourself, anyways," Atemu yelled at her.

Finally, the doorbell rang for the second time that evening, setting off a small series of events. Atemu started to calm but he still anxiously waited for his mother's response. Suzuki's sobs started to slow down, and she blinked her red, puffy eyes, trying to figure out in her mind just who was at the door. And Yugi almost ran to the door, where Seto and Mokuba were most definitely waiting for someone to welcome them inside.

"Hey Seto, it's been such a long time since I last saw you. And Mokuba, it can't believe just how much you've grown, though it was about 13 years ago since I've seen either of you," he exclaimed, the moment that he was able to take in the appearances of both of his cousins.

"It's nice to see you again too, Yugi. Is Aunt Suzuki doing all right so far this evening?" the tall brunet asked, in his usual calm manner.

The amethyst eyed man shook his head, and it was rather obvious that Seto was rather disappointed at this revelation. Mokuba on the other hand, didn't seem to understand just what the two of them were talking about. Yugi stepped back a bit, and let the two brother step out of the warm sun of the summer evening. The younger Kaiba brother was staring at him in wonder and amazement as they walked to the dining room, where Atemu and his mother were hopefully waiting for them. Just what had his cousin and Atemu been telling the teenager?

"Both of you are late! You two are a whole half an hour late to dinner, even when you had promised me that you would be on time today, Seto," his mother screamed as they walked into the room.

It was rather obvious that Mokuba had never seen his Aunt Suzuki like this before, but telling by the glare on Seto's face, he had almost as much experience with her as Atemu did. "It was an emergency at one of the restaurants downtown. A young couple were there claiming that they had gotten food poisoning last night at the restaurant. As if I would let something like improper food safe happen at one of my restaurants, the fools," he explained.

"That is nothing but a bad excuse. Be glad that I'm in a good enough mood to forgive you for this inconvenience this time, but don't count yourself as lucky if this happens again."

All four of them ignored the woman's warning though, as they sat down and started to fill up their plates. Not a single word was said about how the twin's mother's eyes were still red and puffy, and how her clothes and hair were all out of place. Nor was anything said about how Atemu refused to even take a single glance at her. The silence lasted for another 5 minutes or so, before Yugi started to get uncomfortable and decided to attempt to start a conversation.

"So, Mokuba, the other day I heard that you've been helping Seto out at his restaurants lately with the hiring and such," the teenager nodded happily, "You wouldn't happen to remember hiring a certain blond man last Tuesday morning at the Blue Eyes White Dragon, would you? His name is Katsuya Jonouichi," he asked, purposely ignoring the harsh glare that his mother was giving him at the mention of his best friend's name.

The younger Kaiba brother brightened at the mention of his name, and nodded for a second time. "Yeah, I remember him. He seemed like he was a bit on the dumb side but he was really kind, and honest too. For some reason, I got the feeling that Seto would really like him, because he was really stubborn and we all know that Seto enjoys arguing with people. How do you know the guy?" Mokuba asked him, eager to know the details.

"Well, it just so happens that he's been my best friend for years now, and he actually moved here with me. We're currently sharing an apartment downtown too. You know, maybe I should introduce him to you sometime, Seto. Mokuba seems to think that you'd like him, and I doubt that he would be wrong about such a thing."

He gave a small laugh as the older Kaiba brother gave him an odd look, almost as if he didn't think that he would like absolutely anyone that wasn't a part of his close family. Not that Seto was known for being kind to anyone, or even known as anything other than stubborn for that matter. And the more that Yugi thought about it, the more he thought that introducing the two stubborn men would be a great idea.

His mother stayed extremely quiet throughout the whole conversation, not daring to say a single word against his best friend in front of all of these people.

"Speaking about Jono, did you happen to find out about the outcome of the bet that Jono and Ryou made on Monday morning? Ryou had seemed so confident about the outcome of the bet when they made it that it would be a shame if he lost it," his older brother commented.

"Yeah, Bakura asked him out on Thursday or Friday afternoon. They had a nice dinner that night too. Ryou was so happy about all of it that Jono actually seemed like he was happy that he lost a bet for once in his whole life," he answered, not thinking about whom exactly was listening.

It seemed odd at first how that was the comment to finally set his mother off but when he would think about it later, he could tell what exactly it was that had set her off. It was what got rid of any illusions that this dinner might actually turn out well.

"Yugi, dear, could you _please_ tell me exactly what the conditions of this bet were?" his mother asked, in a dangerous voice.

Without a second though, Yugi answered, "Well, about a week ago my friend Ryou, and Jono made a bet on whether or not Bakura would ask Ryou out by the end of today or if it would be sometime after today. The wager that they set was $20, I think."

The entire room went tense, and the younger twin just then realized how bad of an idea it had been to tell his mother that. She had always been very opinionated, and clung to how things had been a good 20 or 24 years ago. It was now also obvious that Atemu had never told their mother about his preferences and by the look on Seto's face, he was in the exact same situation.

"Yugi, Atemu, why on earth do you insist on being friends with such horrible people? It's truly disgusting how some idiotic men and women choose to have relationships with people of their own gender, but I never thought that either of you would choose to even talk to those faggots. Not that I think about it, Yugi, I bet that roommate of yours is nothing but a dirty fag! Oh, there's no way that you could have known that your best friend and roommate was one of those people, sweetie," his mother deluded herself.

That was about all it took for Yugi to completely snap at his mother. The woman may have given birth to him but that did not give her any right to judge his friends because of their sexual preferences, and in turn, judging him. Although, it was doubtful that she had any idea about that. "Yes, _Mother_, Bakura and Ryou are actually gay but Jono is not, and you had no right to assume that he was. You probably haven't heard of this word before, but he's a bisexual, and that means that he is attracted to both men and women. And so what if he is?" he stood up, slamming his hands onto the table, "No matter what you try to tell me, I don't care about their sexual preferences, and I will continue to be friends with them either way!"

"And what if I told you that I you continue to be friends with those fags then you are no longer welcome in this house. This goes to you too, Atemu. You must have known about Bakura being a fag, you're his best friend, after all!"

The elder twin started to stand up himself, trying to fight the rage that was desperately trying to overcome him. Seto wasn't doing much better on his end, but he stayed sitting, and closed his eyes in a last attempt to keep his temper in check.

"Mother, you need to calm down, you're going to end up hurting not just yourself but everyone else here too. Besides, nothing that you try to say will end up making a difference," Atemu tried to say.

"No, mou hitori no boku, don't even bother to try and fix this mess right now, she really needs to hear all of this. Who knows, maybe it will even be for the better in the long run," Yugi demanded, "Now, Mother, what if _I _told you that it wasn't just my close friends that are gay? Did you even bother to pay attention and notice that your youngest son is also what you call a 'fag'? You know what I'm talking about, someone who is into men, and not into women, someone who apparently defies all laws of nature in your mind."

It only took about 5 seconds for Suzuki to fall out of the shock she went into at that comment. "Get out, you traitor! How dare you call yourself my son, you little fag! I don't want to see your dirty fucking face here ever again!" she screamed at him.

"Fuck you" was the only response that Yugi gave. He stormed out of the room without another thought, leaving a full plate of food on the table. Moments later, the front door slammed closed, and the only people left in the house were the four in the dining room. However, Yugi leaving didn't make everything calm again, if fact it had made Seto finally lose his patience with his 'beloved' aunt.

"I never thought that you would be someone who was so horrible, Aunt Suzuki. You just kicked out your youngest son even when these past couple of weeks has been the only time that you've seen him in the past 13 years, and just because his sexual preferences aren't what you'd like them to be. And you've also made it clear that anyone who shares these preferences is no longer welcome in this house. So, I shall be leaving now, you horrible woman. Come on, Mokuba, it's obvious that we're no longer welcome in this house," Seto sneered, before heading out of the house himself.

Mokuba followed closely behind him, but not before giving his own dirty look to his aunt. How dare she insult someone who was obviously extremely kind and who didn't look like they could even harm a single fly? Not to mention how she even dared to insult his older brother at the same too. The only one left in the house were now just Atemu, and the horrible woman herself, with a tense silence in the air once more.

"You aren't like them, are you, Atemu? Please don't tell me that you're going to leave me like the rest of those fags just did!" she screamed, tears running down her face for the second time that night.

His eyes narrowed dangerously, and his lips were pursed together. His anger seemed to be almost completely controlling him as he walked over to where his mother was sitting and once again slapped the woman right across the face, no sympathy or pity in his eyes. Nothing but anger.

"Of course I'm going to leave, you bitch. Why in hell would I stay in a place where, like Seto just said, I am obviously not welcome to? You need to go take a nice good look at yourself and then, who know, maybe you'll actually see just how wrong you really were this evening," he hissed, before storming out of the house himself.

It wasn't that much of a surprise when he walked outside to find that Yugi was waiting anxiously outside for him, while quietly saying goodbye to their cousin. If he had done something incredibly stupid, like staying at that house, he knew that he probably wouldn't even get the chance to talk to his other half again, no matter what they had agreed on earlier. This was one of those times that he wished that they had been born into a different, more accepting family than this one was.

"Hey Aibou, you wouldn't mind if I spent the next few days or so at yours and Jono's apartment? You did say something about having an extra bedroom, after all," he asked, wearily.

"Of course, mou hitori no boku. Jono sent me a text just now saying that Bakura, Ryou, and some guy Malik were coming over tonight at 8, so that we can have a chance to forget about all this. So, as long as you don't mind that. Oh, and Seto, you're welcome to come too," Yugi answered, with a small, tired smile.

"Thank you so much."


	8. Horrific Finish

**A/N: Yet another chapter of Reflection. I hope you enjoy it. This would have actually been out last night, but for some reason, wouldn't let me go onto any part of my account. It was rather strange. Thanks for the reviews. And I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! or the character, plot, anything. Please review.**

* * *

**Reflection  
**_Chapter 7: Horrific Finish_

* * *

His mind was completely filled with nothing but images of everything that had happened just a few hours before. It felt like nothing could make him think of anything other than the moment of Yugi admitting he was gay to their mother, Seto storming out of the room, his mother begging him with everything she had to not be like the rest of his family. And of course, the moment where he had ruined all of his mother's hopes that he wasn't like the rest of them when he yelled at her and left just like Yugi, Mokuba, and Seto had all done before him.

"Atemu, you absolutely have to stop zoning out and focus on the here and the now, not the past, you bastard. I brought the drinks here because every single one of us knew that the dinner would most likely turn out horribly, and it did. Now, just drink some of it, and forget for a little while that you were just kicked out of your house, or that you left, either way," Bakura tried to convince him, shoving a beer can into his hand.

"Look, I would much rather stay sober tonight, even with the rest of you most likely getting drunk. Who exactly knows what type of crazy stuff I would do, especially being so damn angry at that bitch right now. Plus, you're around. I don't feel like finding out about whatever would happen by watching a video on the internet," he refused.

"Well, suit yourself then… lover boy."

Atemu's best friend laughed at his own joke before standing up from the kitchen counter and going to join the rest of the people on the couch, where most of them were watching TV and drinking. It was getting progressively more and more frustrating as the events from earlier kept running through his mind, refusing to leave him alone. Had leaving his completely hysterical mother there on her own been a smart idea? Well, there were pros and cons to the idea. The pros were that this would hopefully be a huge eye opener to her about what the world was really like, and if he didn't, he doubted that he'd ever see his twin again. The only con was that she had been crying, and whether she was a bitch or not, you needed a good, solid, legitimate reason to leave a crying woman.

"Mou hitori no boku, do you want to come join us over on the couch? Bakura had been right about focusing on what's happening right now instead of what happened earlier. She had needed to know all of that and it's never good to keep stuff like that away from her, whether she's truly crazy like that about it or not," his younger brother tried to explain, sitting down beside him.

"Then tell me, why did she act like that? That wasn't just any old fit, Aibou. She would have acted like that whether or not it had been one of her good nights or if it had been one of her bad nights. I can tell the difference between a fit and her actually freaking out," he demanded, his eyes glued to the table.

"I have absolutely no idea and I truly doubt that I ever actually will have an idea. She's been like this for as long as any of us have ever known her, way before either of us was born. And it could be a wide variety of elements that apparently just keep making it worse and worse than it already is. Eventually though, it'll be worse than this and she'll probably even end up hurting someone other than herself."

"Yeah, I – I know all of that."

A hand was cautiously placed overtop of Atemu's and he looked up to see the small understanding smile of his Aibou. That simple little touch was all it took to get rid of all of the negative thoughts of what had happened earlier that evening away, back to the far corners of his mind, where they would most likely come back from to haunt his thoughts some other day. The amethyst eyes of his younger brother hypnotized him, trying desperately to draw him into bliss, where he had never before dared to roam. But how much did he truly wish to do just that? A lot that was for sure.

"So, are you going to come sit on the couch with me now? Bakura and Malik are getting more and more drunk as we speak, and I doubt that you want to miss that show," Yugi suggested.

"Of course I'm going to. Who would want to miss something as amusing as those two getting drunk together? They may have not done this since Bakura was in high school but it's always been an excellent time to laugh at them, and to get blackmail on them at the exact same time," he replied, standing up.

Another soft smile was thrown towards his direction but as Yugi stood up from his own seat, their hands fell apart and the moment was ruined. The lack of contact was immediately despised and if Yugi had been anyone but his younger brother, he would have snatched back the hand that had just been stolen from him. If only things were different than how they were now.

"So, now, who is going to turn off this damn boring basketball game and then turn on some real music so that the real party can start sometime soon? Do I have any willing volunteers? No, then I say that this job is best suited for Jono!"

"No way man, you're standing, so do it yourself."

* * *

"Hey Bakura, just who is that guy, Malik, that you brought over here earlier? I've been wondering that all evening because for some reason, I think that I've heard his name somewhere before but I just can't seem to remember where. Oh and how do you know him?" Jono tried to ask as quietly as he could manage.

The white haired man looked up at him from where he was sitting on the floor, with another drink in his hand. It took the man a couple of long moments for it to process but soon a disbelieving look was on Bakura's face.

"You don't know who that annoying twerp is? He's the son of the art store that hired the other little twerp a few days ago. That bastard has been really good friends with me and Atemu for the past few years now, even since his first year in high school. Well, he's been friend with mostly me but still. Why do you ask?" Bakura half yelled over the music, which had randomly gotten louder in the past 15 seconds.

"I was just wondering."

Jono started to wonder if his words were starting to slur together, or if it had just been his imagination. They probably were, he was fairly certain that he was drunk by now. Not that if really matter if he was or wasn't, seeming he was pretty sure that all of them had been drinking. Or maybe not, he couldn't remember anymore. He started to forget what he was thinking about and soon his mind was lost to all of the things that were happening all around him. Was that Malik and Atemu grinding to the music in the kitchen? Who on Earth kept changing the damn volume on the music? Why did Bakura look to damn happy just sitting on the floor. He downed yet another can.

"Hey Jono, are you feeling okay? You really don't look that good right now," Yugi asked him, appearing out of nowhere.

When had Yugi gotten here? Wasn't he at that weird family dinner with his bitch of a mother and some other family of his? Maybe Yugi had been lying to him about the dinner even happening. Oh, he didn't have a fucking clue anymore.

"I got here a few hours ago, you idiotic drunk. And why would I lie to you about going to a dinner that I left a whole 5 hours ago now?"

Oh shit, had he just been saying all of that out loud? Eh, it didn't seem like that big of a deal, he would have said that exact same thing anyways. At least he could now forget about the events of the past few days, with no need to worry about… something. He forgot again.

"Jonouichi, I really think that you should go get a glass of water right now, and not drink anything else for the rest of the night. It's only about 10:30 PM and you're already completely wasted. You'll be glad that you did in the morning too."

"No fucking way" was the only thing that he was a hundred percent sure that he said. He quickly glanced up to Yugi's amethyst eyes which immediately made him think once more about the blonde that had so heartlessly betrayed his trust. Another can was quickly emptied and deposited on the ground beside him. He refused to think about that any more than he already had.

"Can you please do this for me?"

"But Yug' you really gotta let me cope with this shit. Ya know that I'm no good at dealin' with these types of things on the best of days? So, why the hell would that start now? Let me forget about Miss Pretty Eyes, okay?" he slurred.

"Listen to him, okay squirt? A man's gotta do what a man's gotta do, and that's never going to change. Not that I think you'd understand something like that because I'm pretty sure that you're a bottom," the white haired man tried to explain.

"Alright, fine then, do what you want to do. Just try to remember that you're the one who will most likely regret drinking every last one of those cans in the morning. Bakura, you and Malik are going to regret this too, but still," his best friend commenting, before storming off someplace or another.

He really didn't care anymore, that guy was completely capable of taking care of himself and so was he. And he barely noticed as Bakura got up from off the floor, obviously searching for something that was more amusing. Why should he care about some guy he had only met a few times before? Yet another can was emptied, and there were many more cans where that one came from. This was all he truly cared about tonight.

* * *

He wasn't completely sure what he was actually doing right at that moment, though he had the vaguest idea of what everyone else was doing. Atemu and Malik were doing so dirty dancing in the kitchen for who knows what reason, Yugi was off pouting about one thing or another in his bedroom, Jono was having a pity party with his pile of empty can, and Ryou was sleeping on the recliner in the corner of the room. He was really enjoying this music though, so he didn't really give a shit about just what he was doing.

A familiar voice pulled him out of his nonexistent thoughts. "Hey, do you want to dance with me, Bakura? Atemu just left me saying that he didn't want to dance with a drunken man anymore. Do you care about dancing with a drunken man like he does?" the Egyptian tried to ask him.

Huh, so that fool had finally realized that he was making a complete fool of himself in the house… apartment… whatever of the love of his life. Oh well, it wasn't his problem.

"I would absolutely love to dance with you, Malik. And why the fuck should I care about you being a drunken man? I'm a drunken man too, right now," he answered, laughing.

The tanned man immediately flung his arms around Bakura's shoulders as if his life depended on it, only to be subtly pushed away about half a foot. For some reason, this didn't seem like as good of an idea anymore. However, Malik didn't seem to get the hint he was giving and grabbed a hold of his hips, grinding into them in rhythm with the song. He couldn't resist the temptation, not at the moment at least. Maybe he would have been able to if he hadn't drank so damn much. It only took him a couple of moments to get lost in the music again, and he soon forgot who he was dancing with.

"You're one damn good dancer," Malik whispered once the song was over, his lips resting right below his ear.

"Of course I am, bastard," he replied with a lazy smirk.

Within a couple seconds another song started, one with a heavy beat and a quick tempo. The dancing, or rather grinding if he was specific, also started again with the music. How many times before this had they ended up in this exact same position, without another thought in the world, other than the sound of the music? Too many to count, because this had happened at least every Saturday back when he was in high school.

His thoughts began to wander, never once staying in one place for more than a few seconds. It made him wonder for a brief moment if his subconscious or something was trying to hide something from him. It would be something that was very important to him and something that he wasn't supposed to be forgetting about, no matter if he was drunk or not. Sort of like boring math homework that he could never remember until he was told to hand it in. Only something more important because math homework was horrible and he didn't want to remember it.

A particularly hard grind wiped his mind completely clear of all and any thoughts that had been going through his mind just moments before. The only thing that filled his mind at the moment was the feeling of those hips grind against his own, making him let out an annoyingly soft moan.

"Huh, what was that I just heard, you naughty little boy? Just how much are you enjoying something like this?" Malik taunted a smirk on his lips.

Bakura didn't even dare to answer the question in fear that the only thing that would come out of his mouth would be a moan or something just as embarrassing. But all the other man took that as was permission to continue the grinding plus even more. Which he was exactly what he was doing. He was suddenly pushed against the wall, with a leg forced between his own. The music was quickly forgotten, and the leg started to move, rubbing itself against his now obvious hard on, and making him gasp and moan once again.

"I bet you absolutely love this, don't you, you dirty little slut?" Malik asked, placing a light kiss on his collar bone.

And then the Egyptian raised his mouth off of his collar bone, kissed him right on the lips, and a tongue skillfully made its way past his lips into his mouth. A horrified gasp in the background finally brought him back to his senses of where and who he actually was. And even more importantly than either of those at the moment, just who was staring right at him.

* * *

Ryou lay half awake, curled up on the recliner in Jono and Yugi's apartment. He wasn't exactly sure what had woke him up at all but it had most likely been the horribly loud music. It made him wonder just how he had fallen asleep in the first place.

It looked like it was already about 1 or 2 in the morning, at the very earliest, although it seemed like very few things had changed since he had first fallen asleep. The music was still obviously blaring, and Jono was in the exact same place, the only difference being that the pile of empty beer cans was now bigger than the pile of full ones. The blonde man had thankfully passed out already, and he was sure that he wouldn't wake up again until late morning arrived, or whenever someone started to cook something. The rest of them weren't in his sight, or at least, he couldn't see them from where he was sitting on the recliner. A moan and a gasp brought his attention to what was happening on the other side of the recliner, and he hesitantly started to sit up, curious as to whom it could be.

"I bet you absolutely love this, don't you, you dirty little slut?" a barely familiar voice asked, from the same direction.

It only took him a single second to scramble from the couch once he realized what was happening, completely horrified with what his eyes were showing him.

Three seconds for the burning sensation in the back of his eyes to start kicking in, much to his embarrassment.

Four seconds for Bakura to attempt to push a very drunk Malik off of him, once he realized just what was going on.

And it took five seconds for him to start sprinting out of the apartment, seeking the comforts of his new room.

"Ryou, please, wait for just a moment, and let me explain what just happened!" Bakura pleaded, as he stumbled after him.

The so-called boyfriend of his was completely ignored as he sprinted the short distance to his apartment, suddenly glad that he had once again accidentally left the front door unlocked. By the time that Bakura had made it to the front door of Jono and Yugi's apartment, he was already in his own, with the door locked. He immediately let his body fall to the ground, with his back leaning against the door. Tears were now freely falling down his face by now, and he made no effort to hold them back.

"You – you idiot, can you please hear me out, at least? Oh well, I don't actually know if you can hear me right now, but if you can, please don't ignore me," Bakura asked, almost politely.

He froze up, unable to comprehend just what Bakura was talking about. Why would there be any reason to explain what he had seen? It had been completely straight forward.

"I – I'm drunk and I truly didn't mean to do that to you. Malik had asked me to dance, and I wasn't thinking quite right, and I really should have known better than to accept when I know what Malik's like when he's drunk. I'm so sorry, I'll never do anything like that again, as long as you accept me back. Please, Ryou, I'm begging you to forgive me," Bakura finished.

Ryou stayed completely silent for a moment, knowing that he couldn't forgive him, net yet. He wasn't ready to accept Bakura's apology, not so soon after everything that had just happened in the last few minutes. And he knew that it would only make it worse when he wasn't ready yet.

"No, Bakura, I can't do that, not yet at least. Not when you just completely betrayed me just a few minutes ago. I – I need some time to figure this out, so if you could leave me alone for a few days or so. It might even be a few weeks," he forced out, knowing that Bakura could hear him.

He didn't get a single word in response, and it took him a moment to figure out that Bakura had done exactly what he had asked him to do. The older man had left him alone to figure out the mess that his feelings had become. Even if the only thing that he really, truly wanted right at that moment was the man that he had just asked to leave. He truly wanted Bakura to come back, hug him, and tell him he was sorry, and that everything was going to be okay. Or at least tell him that he was an idiot for thinking that he would ever truly want to do that.

It must have been at least an hour later by the time that his tears dried up, and he finally gained the emotional and physical strength to carry himself to his bedroom. There was no getting his pajamas on or brushing his teeth tonight, not when he felt and probably looked like complete crap.

His thoughts kept getting in the way of him actually going to sleep, though. Things like 'did he ever actually like me' and 'was this how Bakura had been like before he had come along'. Those weren't even the biggest things that he was worrying about though. That was:

"Am I ever going to be able to accept that apology he just gave me?"


	9. Accepting Loss

**A/N: Yeah, I know, it's been a month. Yeah, I know that I'm not a horrible person for updating in a month. Do I have any excuses for it being this late? Except for being lazy, no, I don't. Can't even say that I've been busy with school with it being the end of the school year and all because I do all of my schoolwork at home. Any who, here's the next chapter. Thanks for all the reviews and everything else that I've received. And no, I don't Yu-Gi-Oh! in any way, shape, or form.**

* * *

**Reflection  
**_Chapter 8: Accepting Loss_

* * *

"Curse that horrible demon spawn of a drink. I swear that I will never ever drink that foul substance again. Just remind me that I said this next time we do something like that, okay, Yugi?" Malik groaned, resting his head on the counter in front of the cash register.

"You really didn't seem to think that it was a 'horrible demon spawn of a drink' last night when you unknowingly destroyed Ryou and Bakura's newly founded relationship. Or when you just happened to drop an open can of beer on Jono's head at 4 in the morning, successfully waking up everyone in the whole apartment building," Yugi comment, rolling his eyes.

The tanned man didn't even bother attempting to question Yugi about what happened just the night before. Although, he was fairly certain that it was probably for the best if he didn't find out about any of the stuff that had happened anytime soon. Or anytime at all, for that matter. Ryou had ignored him all morning, while he had breakfast at Yugi's apartment before they went to work. That most likely meant that nothing good had happened, not that anything good ever came out of him being drunk.

"Brother, please do not rest your head on the counter, it does not look good for the customers. You are still are working right now, whether or not you have a hangover or not," Ishizu scolded him, as she walked up to the register.

He slowly lifted his head off of the counter to glare at his sister, revealing the heavy bags underneath his eyes. "Customers? What customers are you talking about that actually care if I'm not acting like a professional at this exact moment? Oh, I know! Those mute, invisible ones that are right in front of us. Sister, this place is absolutely dead."

"Well, this is a small art shop in the middle of the city. Even with it being summer, it's still a Monday morning and there just so happens to be a more popular art store about 5 minutes away. So, only the regular customers would be showing up on a day like today," Yugi added in.

The eldest of the three glared down at the other two. It was rather obvious that she wasn't too pleased with their attitudes towards any of it. "The two of you need to stop being so pessimistic about this. When you run a shop, you find out almost immediately that you are going to have some good days, and then a lot more bad days. However, was it not just last week when we had more customers in here in a single day than we usually do in a whole week? For a shop like this, it is those days that make it so we are still in business," Ishizu sighed, her point now proven, "Yugi, can you help me in the back for a moment?"

The amethyst eyed teenager nodded and followed his new boss into the back of the store. It was in complete order, just as it had been the first time he had been in here. That was, except for a few boxes shoved over to the side from a shipment the store had apparently gotten on Friday afternoon.

"So, what was it that you needed my help with?" he asked, with a smile.

"All I need you to do is to help me lift a couple of these boxes over there. I would have asked my brother, but I do not believe that he would have been much of a help in his current state," she explained.

He silently groaned inside of his head, and grabbed one end of a box while Ishizu grabbed the other end of it. The blue eyed woman confidently led him towards a shelf that had a similar looking box on it. He helped her out with a few more of the boxes with ease, before she informed him that she could handle the rest of them by herself, for the time being.

"Yugi, would you please tell me what trouble Malik got into last night, at your place? I know that he does not truly care if something had happened, and hopes that if it were something truly horrible that he could then write it off as being drunk. However, if he did something that bad, then I know that he would regret not apologizing for it," Ishizu requested.

The feeling that Ishizu was looking directly into his soul was still present as they made brief eye contact with each other but it was nowhere near the extent that it had been when he had first met her. That may have had something to do with the fact that he had became friends with her little brother, but he couldn't be completely sure.

"Yeah, I do have to admit that he did mess up last night. In fact, he had most likely completely ruined two of my friend's, Ryou and Bakura, relationship, not to mention that he probably angered mostly everyone in our whole apartment building this morning. They're probably cursing his name right about now," she nodded at him to go on, "He invited Bakura to dance with him, despite knowing that Bakura was completely wasted by that time, and what it would definitely lead to. Ryou just happened to wake up about 10 minutes later to find the two of them making out in the kitchen, with Malik talking dirty to Bakura. As anyone would do, Ryou ran away from the scene, and Bakura sobered up a little and chased after him. We haven't seen Bakura since then. Then early this morning he was up to no good and decided that dumping a whole can of beer over my friend, Jono's head while he was passed out was a very good idea. And it was a cold one, right out of the fridge too. Jono's screaming woke a lot of people up," Yugi explained, rubbing his temples.

"I… see. I am going to have to have a talk with him later today," she commented.

He took that as an opportunity to leave the back room, and quietly snuck out as Ishizu processed the information he had just given her. Hopefully, she would be able to do something to convince Malik to apologize to Ryou, and anyone else he had angered last night.

"Aibou, are you almost off of work yet?"

Yugi's head shot up at the sound of the very familiar voice. As he expected, Atemu was standing in front of the cash register, next to Malik. The two of them seemed like complete opposites in that moment, with Atemu grinning brightly at him, obviously enjoying his day so far, and then there was Malik, who was once again resting his head on the counter, looking rather depressed.

"You don't have to worry about that, I was just about to tell him that he might as well leave now because we don't exactly need 3 whole people to handle the two imaginary customers that we have at the moment. No, you don't count as a customer, Atemu," Malik groaned, not even bothering to lift his head up.

Yugi let out a small breath and smiled at his coworker, and new friend, "Thank you, Malik, it's really nice of you to do this for me."

The blonde merely lifted his head a couple of inches off of the counter and rolled his eyes before muttering, "I have absolutely no idea what you're going on about, Yugi. Just leave already before Sister comes out of that room again and makes you do more mundane chores."

"I think that the two of us will just have to go and get out of your hair then. We'll see you again later… now, enjoy the rest of this beautiful afternoon, with all of your customers and that wonderful hangover you must have right now," Atemu wished sarcastically, before grabbing a hold of Yugi's hand.

Malik glared at them as they walked out of the store, but didn't make a single move to actually try and stop them from leaving, despite Atemu making fun of him. The younger twin just laughed, thinking of the way that Malik had been complaining about the exact things that his brother had just mentioned, despite neither him nor Ishizu paying any attention to any of his complaints. It was something that he had had to learn how to do the previous night.

"So, why exactly did you come to pick me up today, mou hitori no boku? I thought that you had said that you had to work this afternoon with that guy that both you and Bakura utterly despise or something," the amethyst eyed twin questioned.

"I was supposed to have work this afternoon, well, at least until Bakura phoned me up and told me that he wanted to pick up an extra shift for today. I couldn't exactly tell the guy 'no' between not having to work and feeling a bit bad for him, even if it was all his own fault," the elder of the two answered.

Yugi nodded in agreement, although he didn't really understand why Atemu felt bad, and then continued to let his twin half drag him down the street to wherever he had in mind. He knew that the other must have someplace in mind after all, or he wouldn't have been dragged around with such utter determination. He just hoped that the place was at least halfway decent.

"This is it," Atemu informed him several minutes later, stopping in front of a small lunch type place.

And they were too. The lunch place was oddly quiet for this time in the afternoon but the reason for that more seemed like that it was more out of the way than most places then it being a bad restaurant. The name of the place made him smile to himself, happily remembering moment from his early childhood. The time in particular that he was thinking about was back when him, Atemu, and Seto all had an obsession with these make-believe monsters, his favourite being 'Slifer Red' which just happened to be the name of the restaurant.

"I'm going to take a somewhat wild guess and say that this is one of Seto's restaurants? He seems to have a habit of naming them after things from our past, like the one Jono's working at," he asked, as they walked into the lunch place.

Atemu led him to a small, two person table that was by beside the window. "Of course it's owned by him. I doubt that he would be very happy with me if I took you to a place that wasn't owned by him and had the slightest possibility of being better than any of his restaurants. Besides, going to a restaurant owned by Seto, we know what will happen if anything goes wrong and we tell him about it."

"I'm guessing that everyone who was involved in the matter would be punished in some way or another or they would all be fired for being incompetent?"

The crimson eyed twin laughed but nodded, knowing that it was the exact truth, almost word for word. Their cousin had an incredibly low tolerance for any sort of mishaps or accidents that might ruin his reputation in any way… even if that had never been the person's intention in the first place.

"Excuse me, sirs, but is there anything in particular that you would like to drink today or would you just like water?" the waitress asked, politely.

"No, I'll just have water, thank you," Atemu answered.

"Could you please get me a coke, by any chance?"

The waitress nodded and walked away, leaving the two brothers by themselves. Atemu raised an eyebrow at the younger but Yugi merely looked the other way in an attempt to avoid eye contact and muttered something about needing his daily sugar intake. The sun suddenly moved from behind a stray cloud, pouring in through the window, and suddenly it seemed like it was accenting every single one of Yugi's features. The colour of his eyes, the curve of his lip, and even the faint shadows from his hair. All of it made it so that he couldn't even attempt to tear his eyes away from the scene.

"Mou hitori no boku, what are you staring at? Is there something on my face?" Yugi asked, suddenly noticing the look he was giving him.

"You. I was suddenly reminded of just how perfect you are for me," he answered, the words slipping out of his mouth easily, and almost thoughtlessly.

A major weight felt like it was lifted off of his chest, one that had been weighing him down for a long time. However, it only took him another 5 seconds to realize that he had just crossed a major line that had been there ever since they had met for the second time. He could see it all over Yugi, with the way that he completely tensed up the moment that the words had left his mouth.

"Are you two of you ready to order now, or do you need a couple more minutes?" the waitress asked, butting in at the perfect moment.

* * *

The silence in the apartment was almost completely unbearable. The only things that he could hear was the faint sound of a clock ticking from one of the other rooms, and the occasional creaking sound that honestly worried him just the slightest bit. It almost felt as if the silence was suffocating him. A desperate wish ran through his mind, making him blink back the tears as he once again remembered the events from the night before.

Out of nowhere, the doorbell rang, making him physically jump out of his seat on the couch. Hadn't he asked Yugi and Jono this morning not to bother him tonight because he thought that he needed some time to himself? He was sure that he had, but that only made him hurry to the door slightly faster than he normally would have, even ignoring his book, which was laying wide open on the floor.

"What are you doing here?" Ryou asked, unconsciously narrowing his eyes in dislike for the person at the door.

Much to his dislike, the person who was standing at his door was one of the main reasons for the pain he was currently in. Sure, he may not have known Bakura as well as he would have like to but that didn't mean that being cheated on hurt any less than it would have if he had known him better.

"My sister informed me of what exactly I did last night. I'm not too sure how she actually found out about any of the events that happened last night because I'm not even sure of any of it myself, but I have a small feeling that -," Malik tried to explain.

"I'm sorry but could you please get to the point here? I don't really want to be around anyone at the moment, never mind being around you."

The blonde Egyptian stopped talking for a moment and stared, obviously taking in Ryou's appearance for the first time since he had arrived. Ryou knew that he looked like a complete mess and started to feel slightly ashamed of it, but stubbornly shoved any feelings of shame down. Even though he knew that Malik was seeing a rundown man with red eyes, matted hair, and clothes that hadn't been changed since the previous morning, he still tried not to care.

"Go on and tell me what you're here for. And please just don't say something stupid like that you wanted to apologize for something that was completely out of your control. If you do, I might just have to hit you," he demanded, slightly harsher than he had intended to.

"That is actually what I came here to do. However, the situation wasn't actually completely out of my control. I could have been less of an idiot and I could have not tried to seduce Bakura, especially when I had been informed of your relationship with him just a few hours before what had happened. So, whether or not you accept this, I'm sorry for what happened last night," Malik answered, calmly.

"Just… just get out of here. I need a bit of time to think these things through."

"And… you know, Bakura is suffering because of this just as much as you are right now. Sure, you look physically worse right now, but I talked to him earlier and he told me that being at work was the only thing that was stopping him from running over here and begging for your forgiveness until his last breath. Of course, he didn't quite put it that way, but I think you get it," the blonde commented before turning around and walking away.

Ryou closed the door and slowly walked back into the living room area, the back of his eyes stinging once again. The book was picked up off of the floor, despite him knowing that he wouldn't even get through a whole page. There was too much to think about.


	10. Silent Wants

**A/N: I think that you guys will like this chapter... it has plenty of wonderful, fluffy stuff right in the middle of it. Plus, I've introduced Jono and Seto. So, thanks for those wonderful review, alerts and favourites, I absolutely love them. I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! or any of the characters.**

**Now, I have a question for all of you. What do you think I should name the town that Yugi, and Jonon used to live in?**

* * *

**Reflection  
**_Chapter 9: Silent Wants_

* * *

Yugi was sitting outside in the park by the apartment building, with a sketchbook open on his lap to a page that had one of his older, half finished drawings that he had had some inspiration to suddenly finish. He had just gotten off of his second day of work about an hour before, after a long day with just him and Malik. Ishizu had taken the day off, and that had only made it worse for him, with all of the questions from the blonde about what had happened after Atemu had taken him away.

That was something that he didn't even want to think about. His heart still beat wildly whenever he thought of the confession that had been made the day before. He had completely frozen up, and then had made some bad excuse about remembering that Jono had asked him to pick up some groceries that afternoon. It only made it even worse because Atemu had gone with him to pick up groceries about 2 days before that. He didn't want to think about that though, not when it could be put off until another time when the thought didn't seem quite as scary. And truthfully, it did seem scary, the thought that his own twin had romantic feelings for him and that… he might actually return them. He wasn't about to tell Atemu that though. Maybe another time.

"Good afternoon, Yugi. You wouldn't mind if I took a quick look at this sketchbook of yours, would you?" someone asked him, the sketchbook disappearing from his hands before he had a chance to respond.

It took him a couple of seconds to clearly see the short brunet hair and the cold blue eyes that were looking over the drawings in his sketchbook, clearly not caring about giving him any sort of privacy. The man looked like he was furious, almost as if the next person that angered him would be burned by the flames of hell. Though, there were probably a few people out there that would consider this man the devil in disguise.

"Good afternoon to you too, Seto. It's surprising to see you here. Now… is there any actual reason to why you just took my sketchbook away from me? Or did you just see me and decide that it would be fun to take my most treasured thing for no reason?" he asked.

"Actually, I do have a legit reason for looking at this. Kaiba Corp has been interested in expanding the business into the arts for the last few months now. I remembered Atemu saying something about your drawings and thought that you might be a good candidate for the job. Not to mention that one of the artists decided to drop off the face of the Earth, and quit his job with us too. Have you ever thought about going into the business?" Seto explained.

He nodded his head up and down, already excited at the idea of his art being in an art gallery or whatever it was that Seto had in mind. That sort of thing would most likely be a once in a lifetime thing and something that he would immediately jump at.

"Of course, my drawings are almost my whole life, why would I not think about making it my career too? People do say to 'do what you love' after all. Was that why you came to this park?" Seto nodded, handing Yugi his sketchbook back, "Wait, just how did you find me then? I got out of work about an hour ago, and I'm certain that nobody had followed me from there," the amethyst eyed twin demanded, suspicious of his cousin.

Seto rolled his blue eyes in annoyance, "I had stopped at that low class store that Atemu works at and he told me that he and Ryou and decided to give you some 'alone time' – don't look at me like that, it was his words not mine – but that you would most likely end up being in some park someplace, if I really wanted to talk to you. He seemed a bit too worried, and I would rather not know why."

Yugi sighed and suggested, "How about we go up to my apartment and talk about this there? It's getting a bit too warm out here in this heat and besides, this would be the perfect opportunity to introduce you to Jono, like I promised that I would."

The older Kaiba brother gave him a nasty glare at the mention of being introduced to someone that he had had no intentions of ever meeting but he still nodded in agreement. It was oddly quiet as they slowly made their way to the building right next to the park, which happened to be the apartment building that Yugi, Jono, and Ryou lived in. Neither of the cousins knew quite what to say to the other one, they had never gotten the chance to be as close to each other before this. And then, before they knew it, they had already made it to the apartment.

"Hey Yugi, what are you doing back already? Both Ryou and Atemu phoned a couple of hours ago to say that you'd most likely go to the park after work, and not to expect you back until this evening. Eh, never mind that, who the hell is this guy? You haven't gone and got yourself a boy toy while you were out, have you?" Jono taunted him, a smirk growing on his face.

Yugi did nothing but roll his eyes and shake his head at Jono as he took his shoes off at the door. However, Seto didn't seem to have the same amount of patience that Yugi had with the blonde.

"I am not some low rated 'boy toy' as you so kindly put it. I am not only a business man of the highest quality, and your best friend's cousin, but you're also my employee, and I have the right fire you if I don't like your attitude. It would be best if you didn't insult me," the brunet sneered.

"What? You haven't even heard of a joke before? You must have a stick stuck 6 inches up your ass. Besides, it's not like Yugi is the type of person to bring a guy home anyways, so the thing I could have been doing was teasing him," Jono retaliated.

"Maybe if you were more than an idiotic moron who only knows how to make jokes, then I would believe that."

"Okay, that is way more than enough. I know that both of you absolutely love getting in arguments with complete strangers but I really don't want to deal with two adults who are acting like they're 5 years old," Yugi stepped in, glaring at both of them.

The blonde huffed and walked into the kitchen area, seemingly not too happy with being called both an idiotic moron and a 5 year old. Yugi knew that Jono tended to be a bit overdramatic when it came to things like this, and would most likely pretend to mope about it for the next few days until both him and Seto swallowed up their pride and apologized. And that wasn't something that was going to happen, at least not in the near future… or maybe not in the distant future either, when he thought about just how stubborn his cousin was.

"Just ignore him and come inside. Would you like anything to drink?" he asked Seto, politely.

"Thank you, Yugi, but I'm fine at the moment. Was that truly the person that both you and Mokuba wanted to introduce me to? Honestly, I don't see the appeal, he's just your normal moronic teenager who will never grow out of being a troublemaker," his cousin noted.

Yugi just laughed, completely confusing the older Kaiba brother. There was no point in trying to explain just how obvious it was to him that they were almost made for each other. They were both more than just a bit stubborn and loved a good argument. So, instead, he just walked into the kitchen area without another word, Seto closely following him. From the couch in the living part, Jono tried to pretend that he wasn't interested in what they were about to talk about, but only managed to fail at doing so.

"Jono, you might as well get over here and be a part of this. Besides, the two of you need to be formally introduced, whether or not you actually give a shit at the moment," Yugi called over to the man on the couch.

The blonde grumbled something about just getting comfortable (which had to be a lie, seeming he had only sat down 30 seconds prior) before getting off the couch and walking over to where they were in the kitchen. It seemed that Jono's curiosity was making him ignore any anger that he felt towards either of them at the moment.

"Hello, I'm Katsuya Jonouichi. I've been Yugi's best friend since he was about 8 and I am currently his roommate. And you would happen to be?" the blonde asked, a smirk appearing on his face.

"I'm Seto Kaiba, Yugi's cousin, and according to my younger brother, I am also your boss. It's definitely… nice to meet you, Jonouichi," Seto responded, holding out his hand.

Jono grabbed his hand in a handshake. "It's nice to finally meet you… Seto. Oh, and call me 'Jono', would you? Everyone else does that."

Yugi's cousin raised a single eyebrow and Yugi tried not to laugh at the situation that Jono had just unknowingly gotten himself wrapped up in. Seto wasn't the type of person to use any sort of nickname, no matter what the circumstance. Nor did he overly enjoy being called Seto by anyone other than his own family, to him, it seemed way too informal. Yugi wouldn't have been surprised if the two got into yet another fight over that too.

"Very well, you may call me Seto, but don't you go and expect me to use that ridiculous nickname of yours, Katsuya," Yugi stood there, in shock over what had just happened, while Jono just stuck his tongue out at the other man, "Now, Yugi, did you invite me over here to discuss the details of what we talked about earlier or to talk to this idiot?"

"I – I invited you up here to talk about the details."

* * *

"And you're positive that Seto is actually letting him call him by 'Seto' instead of 'Kaiba'? Did some sort of miracle happen while I was out at work?" Atemu asked, almost completely amazed.

"I'm fairly certain that nothing extraordinary happened outside of that little event. Well, as far as I know anyways. It was a miracle though, because when I first met up with Seto in the park, it looked like he was about to bite someone's head off for some reason. I just think that he like Jono better than he does the average person," Yugi answered, trying his best to completely wipe any traitorous thoughts from his mind.

Atemu shook his head in amazement, before taking another bite of his bowl of pasta. Both him and Yugi were sitting on the couch in the living room, eating their dinner despite it being about 8 PM. The television was on but neither of them were paying attention to whatever show was on. Both of them were way too busy trying to forget about what had happened the previous day. Yugi's bowl was put onto the coffee table moments later, not even a bit of sauce left in the bottom of it. Atemu had always been the slower eater of the two of them.

"Yugi… we really have to talk about this. We can't just leave things the way that they are right now. That… that would be way too difficult for me to attempt to do," the elder of the two admitted.

"I – I'm so sorry, mou hitori no boku, but I really, truly don't know what to do. This is all so confusing to me," Yugi answered, biting his lip.

"What's so confusing about it? You know that I have feelings for you… what's so hard to understand?" Atemu questioned the other.

"No, that's not that part that… confusing me, trust me on that. It's this part of me that feels so… happy whenever I think about what happened yesterday, and all I can think is about how wrong this all is."

Atemu put his bowl down beside Yugi's, and turned so that he was facing Yugi, neither of them were even pretending to be paying attention to the television by now. Yugi was nervous, that much Atemu could tell by just a single glance. His twin's knees were pulled closed to his chest, and he seemed to want to look absolutely anywhere but his face. As if this confession was physically hurting him.

"I don't care what other people think about any of this, Aibou. To me, none of this could ever be wrong," he blurted out.

His younger brother finally looked him in the eye, and he could see the other's eyes slowly fill with some unknown hope. In that moment, both of them felt that it might be able to work out if they truly didn't care what anyone thought about them being together. That brief connection was lost though, the moment that Yugi's eyes left his own. However, while he had lost the eye contact, he had gained something else. Yugi had moved his hand over his own.

"Everything… everything's going to turn out okay, alright Aibou? Just please don't do something like what you did yesterday afternoon. When… when you left me at the restaurant, I thought that you didn't care and that you never would, and it just… hurt so badly," he tried to explain.

"O – okay, I won't do that again. Can we try going there again sometime? So… so I can make up for the mistake that I made?" Yugi asked, hesitantly.

He nodded, smiling sweetly at the younger brother. If only he could sweep the younger into his arms and then never let go again, at least not for a million years. He couldn't do that though, especially not in a place like this. It may have been Yugi's and Jono's apartment but almost anyone could barge in at any time, and the only one of those people who would definitely not freak out was Bakura. Not that that would have been much better.

The elder let out a small sigh and closed his eyes, losing himself in the feeling of Yugi's hand over top of his own. However, the snapped open seconds later when Yugi climbed over onto his lap, the amethyst eyed twin's arms wrapping around his waist. He mentally laughed to himself. They were twins after all, so they did know what the other was usually feeling – to an extent.

"Aibou… please, I need to hear you say it out loud. Do – do you actually return my feelings or do you not?" he asked, cautiously wrapping his arms around Yugi.

"I do, mou hitori no boku. I do like you more than just a twin, or even a friend. You're the most important person in the world to me, and there's no way something like that will change any time soon, or even at all. It's just that I… I don't think I would be able to handle it if we were if um, jump right into bed or anything like that. I'm not ready for that," Yugi quietly admitted to him.

"That's absolutely fine. I would never push you into anything that you're not ready for."

Yugi sighed lightly and leaned his head against Atemu's chest. It was absolutely perfect the way that they were now laying on the couch. Atemu had leaned back, unable to support all of Yugi weight while sitting up, and having nothing to lean on. His hands were now on Yugi's lower back, intertwined with each other. It felt completely natural to be that way, unlike how two normal siblings would have felt in this sort of situation.

"Oi, Yugi and Atemu, you two better be decent when I get in there or else I won't be very happy. Besides, it's an emergency!" an all too annoying voice yelled from the front door.

Yugi slowly lifted his head off of Atemu's shoulder and they shared a quick look. What sort of 'emergency' would make Bakura of all people yell at their doorstep, almost begging to be let inside? However, much to Atemu's surprise, Yugi stayed where he was in Atemu's arms and let Bakura enter the apartment by himself, not even bothering to greet him at the doorstep.

"Ha, I knew this would happen one day! You two are completely predictable," Bakura informed them as he walked inside.

"What do you want, Bakura?" the eldest demanded.

"I can't find Ryou anywhere. I checked all of the places where he's usually at but he was nowhere in sight, and his car isn't even in the parking lot. That's not everything either. I just checked his apartment and it looks like somebody has broken into it. So, don't you start getting pissy with me, Atemu."

* * *

The sun had just set a few minutes ago, leaving a few reds and oranges left in the sky from said event. And he barely even noticed the couple of small clouds in the sky that were just barely reflecting a bit of light from the earlier sunset. All of his surroundings were completely beautiful, but he didn't have the heart to take it all in at the moment. It was just a little farther until he got to the next town over, probably only about a half an hour drive or so.

Being alone right now, it felt like it was the best idea for the time being, and one of the better ones that he had ever come up with. All he had really needed was a bit of time to be able to properly sort through his thoughts, away from everything that was causing the chaos in his mind. Now, he just had to sort through his feeling and figure out just what he wanted. It wasn't like he hadn't somewhat forgiven Bakura for what he had done a few nights ago. Mostly because he couldn't completely blame anything but the alcohol for what happened. Bakura had been completely wasted, and nobody was usually accountable for their actions in that state of mind.

The longer he spent time away from Bakura, the harder it became to not go and run into the other's arms. He was scared because of the control Bakura had over him.


	11. Unavoidable Questions

**A/N: Yeah, yeah, I know that it's been a while... again. I have all these ideas floating around my head but... none of them are for this story, so it's annoying. Thanks for the reviews, and everything else from the last chapter. Anywho, enjoy the chapter, and please review. Oh, and I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh! or any of the characters.**

**me: Thank you so much for the review, and for standing up for me. Makes me feel a lot better.**

**Yaoi Hater: Yeah, I'm responding to this despite the fact if you're actually reading this, then well, I question you a lot. Maybe it's because you didn't read part the first chapter that you didn't understand that this doesn't take place when they're little kids. And if you hate so much, why do you even bother reading it at all? I write this for my own enjoyment, and for anyone else who wants to read it. If you have a problem with it, go ahead, I don't care. You're just looking for something to complain about, and something to waste you time on, anyways.**

* * *

**Reflection  
**_Chapter 10: Unavoidable Questions_

* * *

Why was it that today had to be the day that he saw Jono sleeping in a car? Why couldn't this have happened some other time, when he didn't have so much happening in his life already? There were things like how nobody was able to get a hold of Ryou, which at first, hadn't been as big of a deal as Bakura had made it out to be but as the hours went on, everybody kept getting more and more worried that Ryou had been in the apartment while the robbers had broken in. And then there was that other thing of how he and his brother of all people had just confessed to each other, only a few minutes before Bakura had burst into the apartment.

The faint lights of a nearby town appeared in the distance, reminding him of just how far they had driven in their search for the older white haired man. After all, the town that they were currently approaching could be none other than Duelist, the only town in the area and the very same town that he had spent the last decade or so of his life. It was also a good 3 or 4 hour drive from Domino City. Now that he thought about it though, he had mentioned it to Ryou once or twice before, telling him how quiet it was there, and how everyone respected each other's privacy for the most part. He could only hope.

The amethyst eyed boy forced himself to keep his eyes open for a little bit longer though. It would be long before they reached the small town, and then hopefully they would be able to stay at Jono's parent's place for the rest of the morning because he couldn't stay up much longer. That thought reminded him of something that he really needed to do right about now.

"What the hell, Yugi? Why the fuck did you wake me up like that? A 'hey, Jono, could you please wake up' would have been nice instead of you honking the fucking horn, you bastard!" Jono screeched, barely half a second after he had hit the middle of the steering wheel.

"I'm not about to drive you another 3 or 4 hours all the way back to the apartment, I don't think that I'd been able to make even halfway there without fall asleep and driving off the road, and I know that it would be even worse for you. On the other hand, we're about a 15 minute drive away from Duelist, so I'd really appreciate it if you could phone your parents and ask them if we could spend the rest of the night there. If not, then phone Honda," he commanded, in a harsh tone that he rarely used.

"And why can't you do it?" Yugi didn't even have to look at Jono for him to get the point, "Alright, alright, I get it. I'll phone, just give me a couple of minutes."

Yugi nodded slightly, and continued driving, the only keeping himself awake from the reminder that they would be able to stop soon and the sound of Honda and Jono swearing at each other in the background. Sure, the night sky was beautiful but that didn't mean that it was enough to keep him awake at the moment nor did he want to be seeing it. Just as he passed the city limits, Jono stopped swearing at the person on the other end and there was a soft click as he shut his cell phone.

"So, where exactly are we headed for the night?" he asked the tired blonde.

"Honda's, I didn't have the heart to wake my parents up at this horrible time of the day. Besides, I told Honda that if he lets us stay over than I'll say that he now owes me $150 instead of the $200 that he actually owes me. It's probably more than that that he actually owes me from times that I was drunk and he took advantage of that," Jono answered.

"Well, that probably made up for the fact that you woke him up seeming he's usually completely broke and you have a bit of a bad habit of throwing away money whenever you're drunk."

Jono just shrugged at him as he closed his eye to try and tried to get a few minutes of sleep before they got to Honda's place. Then he would hopefully be able to get some more sleep there. Maybe.

* * *

"When exactly are you going to get your fucking stupid ass off of that god damned couch? I know that you're missing your new little boy toy now that you've gone and made it pretty much official but that doesn't give you a damn reason to lay around when there's way more important things out there to do," Bakura sneered.

The crimson eyed twin turned onto his back and retaliated, "What more important things? Neither of us have work today, and we've searched almost the whole fucking city, so there's no way that he's anywhere around now. So, the only chance we have of finding him right now is if Aibou and Jono get lucky and find him."

"Oh, just shut the hell up, you bastard."

Atemu laughed silently at his childhood friend, who was currently avoiding eye contact while he drank the rest of his morning coffee. It wasn't actually the time to be laughing though, the knowledge that neither of them could do anything to help find Ryou without doing something stupid like getting the police involved, and the fact that Ryou had gone missing and his apartment was completely bare was slowly becoming more and more real. Not to mention that no one had heard from Yugi or Jono since an hour or so after they had left the night before.

It would have been a horrible lie if he had even implied that he wasn't worried about his Aibou. Everything was overly tense at the apartment, and the lack of contact from the group that was still out was only making things worse as time went on. Sure, he was worried about his Aibou's friend too, but he had only begun to talk to the man a bit more in the past few days. And then the way he had been acting since Sunday, it would not have been surprising if he finally got annoyed with people bugging him and went to stay in a hotel for a night.

"You're sure that they're alright, right Bakura?" he asked, hesitantly.

"I thought that I just told you to stop fretting over your little love bird, you god damn idiot. Are you really going to give up faith on the little guy that easily? He's a lot stronger than you obviously think he is," Bakura yelled at him.

"I haven't come in at the wrong time or something again, you guys? I did come here as soon as I was able to," a new voice added in, before Atemu even had the slightest chance to respond.

A blonde, tanned teenager was standing in the doorway to the apartment, awkwardly watching the two men and obviously, he was rather confused seeing Bakura yell at Atemu. It looked like he had just got there a moment or so before to Atemu's relief, the teenager hadn't even taken off his shoes yet. What was even more surprising than that though, was that he had walked into the apartment without either Bakura or Atemu noticing.

"No, it's completely fine. I did ask you to come over last night, and so, I can't blame you for being so late when you have Ishizu of all people as an older sister," Atemu spoke up.

Bakura quickly glanced from Atemu to Malik and then back again before groaning to himself. There was no way that he could continue any sort of conversation about Yugi while Malik was standing right in front of them. Not while the teenager was one of the many people who were blissfully unaware of what was going on right in front of their eyes. There really were too many of those people.

"Ugh, don't worry about it, it's just as this idiot said, even if you did walk in at the wrong time _again,_ we can't blame you for coming over when we asked you to do so. Besides, the two of us will just have to continue this conversation later on," Bakura agreed, looking directly at Atemu.

"Ok, that's fine then," Malik accepted, without a second thought, "Oh yeah, is there any possible chance that I could see what condition Ryou's apartment is in? I'm just a bit curious about that."

"Of course you can do that, right Bakura? There's no harm in letting him see the damage that whoever broke in did to the place, after all," the crimson eyed twin butted in, finally getting up off of the couch.

The blonde Egyptian thanked Atemu as he led the youngest down the hall towards Ryou's apartment while Bakura hesitantly followed close behind him. The door to the apartment was unlocked, not to anyone's surprise. However, Malik was completely surprised at the condition the place had actually been left in. a couple of things were missing, such as the TV and the laptop that had been on the coffee table, and there were clothes thrown everywhere around the room.

"I thought that you guys had told me that this place had been broken into? There's absolutely no sign of forced entry or anything like that at all. There are just a few things that are missing and that is it," Malik commented, calmly.

"I doubt that it was too difficult to break in. I doubt that he even locked the door if he wasn't home at the time, never mind having any sort of alarm system or anything else of the sort. Things like that are completely foreign to Ryou," Bakura admitted.

* * *

"I actually meant to ask the two of you this last night but I was too damn tired to remember such a thing seeming you got me up at 4 in the damn morning," Jono laughed tiredly, but nobody in the room bothered to pay any attention to him, "What the hell made you two drive all the way here from Domino City in the middle of the night? I know you weren't drunk because you're not dead yet, so there had to be some legitimate reason for it," Honda demanded, staring down Yugi and Jono.

"Well, long story short, we're looking for a friend of ours who went missing yesterday evening. He's been really upset for the past few days, so it's likely that he just wanted to get out of town for a little while. However, his… boyfriend found his apartment door open and completely bare of any valuable, including the TV. He got a bit worried, and so, here we are," Yugi explained, with a small shrug.

"Yugi, you're worrying me because this is apparently the short version of the story."

Both Jono and Yugi quickly glanced at each other before Yugi both let out a short, nervous laugh that only gave Honda more reason to worry about what had happened. Honda's visitors looked a bit tense as they say at the table in Honda's 2 bedroom apartment despite how relaxed Honda himself actually looked. Almost every comment that either or the two said made him wonder just what was happening in Domino City a bit more. Especially when one of them had mentioned that woman that Jono had apparently been seeing last week or so. It was no secret to anyone how Jono acted around women.

A loud know at the door interrupted the brief silence, and the person outside yelled, "You two fuckers! I know that you're in there. And Honda, you bitch, some and unlock the damn door already so I can beat Jono's ass into the ground!"

Honda swore under his breath, and quickly jumped up out of his seat to go unlock the door before the man started to shout again, or worse, kick the door to the ground. Yugi groaned as he realized just who it was at the door, not that there was really more than one possibility. The blonde quickly snapped out of the short shock he had went into and ran out of the room, either going to hide in Honda's bedroom or in the bathroom. Not that it would do any good at all.

"Yugi, tell me where that little motherfucker went. I still need to teach him a lesson for not even attempting to get a hold of me in any way. It's been a whole damn month now, and I haven't heard so much as a fucking 'hello' from either of you," the man demanded, as him and Honda walked into the room.

"Jono ran off into one of the other room to hide from you," the amethyst eyed man answered calmly, sipping at his orange juice.

He watched with amusement as the tall, blonde man walked out of the room again, with a vicious smirk on his face. Jono was definitely in trouble this time, from the sounds of it. After all, they had befriended the guy after he had tried to rob Honda's family's restaurant a couple of years back when his family was almost always in debt in one way or another. Loud swearing from both men came from the other room and a few minutes later they both walked back into the kitchen and living room area. The man looked rather pleased with himself, and Jono just clutched at his poor stomach.

"Good morning, Marik. Sorry about not getting a hold of you in the time that we've been living in Domino City, I've been really busy. But I guess that isn't all too surprising," Yugi greeted the taller of the two blondes.

"Ha, I expected something like that to happen to you, Yugi. Half of the time I wonder if you live in this fucking pathetic world or in some dream world that you create in those drawings of yours. So, what has been so interesting that you haven't even tried to remember to phone every once in a while?" Marik asked, taking the last seat at the table.

"Well, _I've _been busy with a couple of hit girlfriends the past few weeks, and I recently got a job at Yugi's cousin's restaurant that just so happens to be very high class," Jono answered.

"And that means that you've had a single girlfriend who may or may not have been good looking, and then she just so happened to screw your idiotic self over. Then you got a job at Yugi's cousin's place purely by coincidence, and the restaurant is middle class. Not that I was even talking to you in the first place, you damn mutt," Marik corrected.

Jono shut up with a defensive snarl on his face, despite that what Marik had just said was completely true. No attention was paid to him though, because Honda and Marik were both too busy paying attention to Yugi, who had a much higher chance of having something interesting to him. Out of nowhere, Yugi's eyes widened and he jumped up out of his chair.

"Shit, I forgot to phone Atemu and Bakura. I'm so sorry you guys, I'll catch all of you up on everything in a few minutes or so," he apologized, before running off in search of his newly charged cell phone.

"What the fuck have we missed?" Marik muttered under his breath.

* * *

"Thank you so much for the delicious meal, Miss Otogi," Ryou thanked, giving a soft smile to the older woman.

"Oh, don't worry about it, because it was no bother to me, young man. Especially after my Ryuji went and said something so rude to you for no reason. So, it was the least that I could do to make you lunch. Just think of it as my way of apologizing for my son," the black haired woman explained.

"It wasn't that big of a deal to me. I took no offense from your son's words, mostly because it was something that I actually needed to hear, believe it or not. So really, I should be thanking him too despite how rude he was being. I don't blame him for saying that."

Miss Otogi did absolutely nothing to suggest that she had even heard a single word of what he had just said, except for a small twitch in her eyebrows. It was not that surprising at all though. Ever since he had been so nicely 'introduced' to her son, Ryuji, he had learned that she was very stubborn and definitely not someone who would take 'no' for an answer. She had insisted that she make him lunch in exchange for the rude words that had been sneered at him while he had been leaving the family's hotel just a bit earlier in the day.

The change in scenery ended up being exactly what he needed. There was nothing that he needed to clean up from that night, no constant reminders of what happened, no need to keep up appearances around other people, and no almost constant phone calls from _him_. After all, even if this lace seemed a bit smaller than how Yugi had described it, it was doubtful that he would ever some back. So, he really didn't care what any of the townspeople thought about it and that was something that he had needed for a very, very long time.

"So, what exactly brings a nice boy like yourself to a small 'blink and you miss it' town such as this one? Surely you can't be visiting family or anything like that because I know what every boy your age looks like and you look nothing like any of them," Miss Otogi questioned.

"I'm here to get away from a lot of different things. For one of those things, it's almost the exact same as Ryuji guessed, except that I don't have a 'bitch of a boyfriend' who listens to my every word and he didn't finally get sick of me abusing him and called the cops. I do have a boyfriend though, well, I guess I do. It's just a few days ago, we were drinking with a few friends and I fell asleep, but when I woke up I found him making out with another guy," he explained.

"I know your pain in that particular area even if you don't believe me. I have one little piece of advice for you though. Don't end your relationship on something that happened while either of you were drunk because you will do nothing but regret it in the future. Now, what's the other reason that you're here?"

"I moved from England about a month ago, without my father knowing about it. Last week, he finally got a hold of my new phone number and has been phoning me multiple times a day, demanding to know every detail about my life. Also, he won't stop telling me that I have to come back to England for some reason or another. I know it's actually just because he doesn't want me somewhere where I'm able to ruin his reputation. It really frustrates me."

"I can't say I know how you feel. But, it seems like this was more the real reason why you left than the small fall out you had with your significant other. Now, does he know that this was the reason you left?"

Ryou shook his head, his eyes closing in an attempt to ignore the guilt and to give himself a moment to think. Now that he had had some time to think, he could see the truth in both things that she had just said. He should give Bakura another chance, or should have given him a small phone explaining everything that had been happening. Because he wasn't actually all that angry about Sunday night, in fact, he doubted his ability to do something different while he was in that state. First though, he would spend another day or two here, before going back to Domino City. He just hoped it all wouldn't come back to bite him in the ass before that.

"I think that I've come to a decision…"

"Ryou, is that you?"

He had spoken too soon.

* * *

"Mou hitori no boku, we found him."

"That's great, Aibou."

"There's one little problem though. He refuses to some back to Domino for a few more days. I was hoping that…"

"I understand you're saying, so don't worry about it. I'll… attempt to prevent Bakura from running over there until tomorrow."

"Thank you."


	12. Long Night

**A/N: Yeah, I'm well aware that the chapter is later for the 50 billionth time. But I have a sort of legit reason this time... Two weeks ago I posted the prologue of my new story, With Love which you should all definitely go read once you're finished reading this. Especially if you enjoyed the Ryou and Bakura part of this. And then last week I was studying for my provincial, in between watching my little brother's annoying basketball games and seeing the play Wicked in Vancouver which was awesome. Oh, and thanks to everyone who reviewed, favourited, or alerted this story.**

**Anywho, I'm not a big fan of this chapter myself but it had to be done. Whatever, the next one is a lot better. I hope that you enjoy this anyways. Please review :)**

**Oh, and as you should all know by now. I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! or any of the character. Nope, not mine.**

* * *

**Reflection  
**_Chapter 11: Long Night _

* * *

"I am sorry, Ryou but I was unable to delay Bakura from showing up here more than a couple of hours. It's not much, but he refused to stay away any longer than that, no matter what it was I tried telling him," Atemu apologized, politely.

"You don't have to worry about it too much. I knew that there wasn't much that could keep him from racing over here once I found out what you guys thought had happened, no matter what you or anybody else tried to tell me," Ryou responded, an empty look filling his eyes.

A tense silence filling the living room of Honda's apartment, and not a soul dared to break it. Everything was in disarray with only one of them knowing the whole story behind it all. Yugi, Jono, and Honda had gone to have lunch at a place that they had thought would be completely empty, only they found Ryou there, eating lunch with the chef. So, without any explanations, Honda and Jono had almost literally dragged Ryou back to Honda's apartment, while officially scaring the crap out of Marik who had stayed behind to take a nap. Yugi had phoned Atemu on the way to the apartment, and had just arrived with Malik.

"Bakura's only about an hour away right now. It probably won't take him that long though, because he took his motorcycle and it's almost definite that he's speeding," Yugi commented, walking out of the bedroom, "Atemu wasn't as convincing as we hoped, unfortunately. But it's not like Bakura is the type of person to tell the truth on a regular basis."

"All I'm hearing at the moment is 'Bakura fucking this and Bakura fucking that' but I have no idea what's really going on here. The only thing that I understand is that this damn Bakura guy cheated on the you two all but dragged into here against his will but a normal person wouldn't fucking run away because of that type of shit. So, what I'd like to know is why did this damn guy actually run away?" Marik demanded.

The room went silent again for the billionth time since they had brought Ryou here, but this time all of the eyes were on the supposed victim, and none of them were waiting patiently for the answer. Although most of them had only noticed this little fact once Marik had pointed it out, all of them were still desperate to know the answer. It was the reason that he had started the whole thing, after all.

"Hey Marik, you can't just go around demanding things like that from him. Sure, you have a good point but it's his business and we haven't even known him for that long," Jono protested.

"No, Jono, it's fine, really, you don't have to worry about it. It may be my own business but I think that you deserve to know the whole reason why I left. You guys did come all the way here just for my sake, even if I didn't really want you to," Ryou agreed.

"Uh, well, then get on with it and tell us. We're waiting."

"It's true that the incident on Sunday had a little bit to do with me coming here and attempting to hide out from you guys, but there was more than that going on. I may have been more than a little bit hysterical about what happened that night, and then most of yesterday but I do have to admit that I know it was completely because he was drunk. Besides, I was still a bit drunk at that time myself. And I can't grantee that I wouldn't have done the same thing if I was drunk.

"The main reason that left was because of my father. For the past week or so, he's been constantly phoning me, and trying to force me to move back to England. He wants me to be the heir of my family. We're a rich family, so that would also mean that I would not be allowed to ever move back here or even visit again, and that I would have to act like a perfect son, talk like a perfect son, date only people who my father would approve of, and then just do absolutely everything that my father says, in general."

"You know, it would have been really fucking nice of you if you had actually told me this to my face instead of letting me think that this was completely because of me. It was the worst torture on Earth that you could have used, letting me think that you completely despised me," a new voice snarled, from the doorway.

Ryou's head quickly turned towards the sound of the voice, and just as he thought, Bakura was standing just inside of the apartment, leaning against the white walls in the entrance. The man's eyes almost seemed to scream their owner's fury at him, making him turn away in guilt. This fury seemed different than when he had seen Bakura and Atemu fight with each other, and was covered by something else that he hadn't noticed before.

To distract himself, he looked over at Yugi in an accusing way. The short amethyst eyed man just smiled sheepishly, the slightest bit of blush on his cheeks.

"Wait a damn moment. So, you ran away to get away from your father but then everyone else thought that you ran away because of this guy and how he apparently cheated on you a few days ago? Then your apartment was broken into, so they all went searching for you?" Honda demanded to know, his brown eyes narrowed.

Ryou opened his mouth to correct something that the brunet just said, but Bakura interrupted him, "Yeah, that's pretty much the whole damn story. Now, Ryou, please tell me why you didn't mention any of this to me."

The whole room silence once more as Ryou avoided eye contact with the new arrival, whatever he was just about to say gone. Bakura, on the other hand, refused to back down until the other gave him a real reason for all of this.

"Bakura, I was just so scared of… of everything," Ryou admitted, quietly, "After I got over how angry I thought I was at you about what had happened the other night, I realized that I… I was more jealous of Malik than I would be if you were someone that I was merely attracted to. And then on the side, my father has never been exactly supportive of my sexuality. I guess in the end, I was also scared that he would come and take everything away that I've gained in the past few weeks. I needed time to think about just how much you meant to me."

"I really don't want to interrupt you two, but well, I kinda really do want to before it gets any further than this. Sure, this place has seen a lot of gay stuff in the past year or two that I've been living here but you guys are almost complete strangers to me and I'd eliminate the possibility of you two making out or anything of the sort in here," Honda hesitantly butted in.

Bakura simply smirked, making Atemu roll his eyes as the whitette strolled over to Ryou. Moments later, Ryou was standing up and had an arm possessively wrapped around his waist. A hard kiss was planted on his lips, both effectively and quickly taking his out of his shock.

"Seeming one of the brat's idiotic friends seems to be kicking us out because he's afraid of any of the homosexual activities that we may or may not initiate and participate in. so, I think that we'll just have to go to the hotel room and… talk a bit more about all of this, in private," Bakura announced in a loud voice, before dragging the stunned Ryou out of the room.

"That was rather interesting but I was expecting a bit more with how much he had been freaking out about this when you guys weren't here. Only Bakura would be able to act like an extremely worried lover when hardly anyone is around, but then when he's around a crowd of more than two, he feels like he has to show the whole world how badass he is," Malik commented, from his seat on the floor.

"And I can tell that they aren't the only interesting ones that have walked into this apartment today, kid. Nor do I quite understand what the fuck you're doing here… or even who you are, for that matter," Marik added in.

"I overheard Atemu and Yugi talking on the phone and decided to come with Atemu to root for Ryou in this little… situation. As for who I am, well you might just have to find that one out on your own won't you, old guy?"

Marik smirked evilly as he noticed the slightest bit of blush on the usually composed teen's cheeks, proud of his ability to make him do so. Everyone else had escaped into their own little conversations, now that the single factor of stress and awkwardness had been taken out of the room practically the same way he came in. Just with more kicking and screaming the first time around. And that factor of stress and awkwardness was most likely being ravished in the middle of the street, if that guy was actually going through with what he said. He doubted it.

"Shit, it's already 2 PM and I have to go to work this evening! God damn it, Malik, you had better come back to Domino City with me because Atemu's told me about some of the things that your sister has done and I doubt any of us want to be the object of her wrath anytime soon," Jono announced, jumping out of his seat.

* * *

"Why, why did you just do that, Bakura? I thought that you were angry with me after everything that just happened. So, why are you doing this to me? Is it some kind of strange and unusual torture you just came up with?" Ryou tried to demand, his voice wavering.

The taller of the two laughed to himself and placed an uncharacteristically sweet kiss on Ryou's forehead. Ryou blinked, and looked up at him, his hands held above his head as Bakura pinned him to the bed in the hotel room. He couldn't seem to understand just why or how this had all happened, especially when Bakura had seemed so mad at him just minutes ago.

"Yugi wasn't lying to me when he mentioned that you could be a bit dense at the best of times, was he?" Ryou blushed and stammered a denial but Bakura ignored it and just kept going, "How the fuck could I stay angry at you when you forgive me for doing that damn stupid mistake of mine. And to answer your damn question, all I'm doing in completely_ ravishing_ you to my damn heart's content like I've wanted to since the first time I saw your fucking dense self, you little bitch," the taller explained.

Bakura had gotten so wrapped up in what he was saying to Ryou that he didn't even noticed the look on Ryou's face change from one of confusion and embarrassment to something completely different. He had long since stopped biting on his bottom lip and his eyes were filled with two things: acceptance and lust.

It made a lot more sense to him now.

"I think that I've just realized something that you'll really enjoy, Bakura," he was given an odd look as he continued, "I really, really enjoy it when you to me like that. It definitely… excites me," Ryou breathed out.

Bakura smirked as he realized what the other was trying to say, Ryou turned his head away to try and hide the blush on his face. However, the taller whitette wasn't about to have any of that, and he grabbed both of Ryou's wrists in one hand and used his free one to turn Ryou's head back towards him. Another kiss was placed on Ryou's lips, but there was a single difference this time around. Ryou completely gave into it, kissing back as hard as he could.

His boyfriend was definitely different than anyone else he knew.

* * *

It was quiet, the only sound being the constant ticking of a clock somewhere in the room. The bed was a bit on the cold side, and the space beside him was completely empty. It couldn't have been any later than 11 PM, but Honda had insisted on going to bed early because he had work or something in the morning and he didn't want the twins keeping him up any later than absolutely necessary. Not to mention that Atemu had convinced him to take the bed, while he took the couch, leaving him all by himself which was what he had wanted to avoid in the first place.

The door creaked open a couple of inches.

"Yugi, are you still awake?" his twin asked, in a whisper.

"A-Atemu, what are you doing here? I thought that you were going to sleep on the couch, seeming you seemed so insistent on that earlier," Yugi asked, bitterly.

The crimson eyed twin didn't dare to answer and merely took the two steps from the door to the bed once he had gotten the confirmation that Yugi was still wide awake. Yugi didn't need an explanation anymore once his twin climbed into the bed with him, and wrapped his arms and his waist, without a word. It was nice, being able to feel the soft breath of Atemu on the back of his neck as the other got comfortable.

"I'm sorry that it took so long for me to get there, Aibou. I had to make sure that your friend, Honda, was fast asleep before I dared to sneak into here. It turns out that he's a very light sleeper, he spent the last hour or pacing from his bedroom to the kitchen and back again. I came as soon as I was able to," Atemu explained.

"That's fine, mou hitori no boku. I'm just glad that you did get to come here at all. Honda must have fallen asleep by now, anyways, because as you just noticed, he's a very light sleeper."

His brother didn't bother responding to his comment, and tightened his grip on his waist. He listened for a little while as their breathing fell in sync, closing his eyes. It was so much better sleeping here with him than sleeping by himself, left to listen to the ticking of the clock. He was able to hear the steady beating of his or Atemu's heart – he wasn't able to tell whose it was. He had just been about to fall asleep when a question popped into his mind.

"Mou hitori no boku… I wonder if Bakura and Ryou are okay. Nobody has heard from either of them since Bakura practically carried Ryou out of the room. I'm sure that Bakura would be taking good care of Ryou but… what if they got into another fight and left each other again?" Yugi asked, quietly.

"I'm sure that the two of them made up hours ago, maybe even before Bakura had dragged Ryou off to god knows where. It's never been straight forward with that guy, he always feels the need to manipulate people in one way or another," Atemu reassured his brother, trying his best not to let sleep take over.

He turned so that he was facing towards Atemu's chest, effortlessly snuggling up to him as the thin sheets rode down to their waists.

He seemed a lot more resolved now than before he had had the reassurance that everything was going to be alright between Ryou and Bakura. He knew that Atemu knew Bakura well enough that he knew that Bakura would just put it behind him without another thought. Not to mention that he had made sure to tell the man personally that he had better take better care of Ryou this time around.

Minutes later, his breaths evened out as he fell asleep, Atemu following only moments later.

* * *

Jono tossed and turned in his bed, the events of the night running through his mind for some strange reason. After speeding back to Domino City from Duelist, he had gone straight to work, only a few minutes late, luckily. Malik had insisted on walking home from the restaurant's parking lot, not wanting to be any more of a burden than he already was. He didn't have the time to argue with the younger boy, and dropping him off would have only made him later than he had ended up being. Not to mention the boy's sister's wrath if he wasn't there in the morning just because he had decided to take a little… trip all the way to Duelist.

The blonde man groaned as his mind started to replay the events from earlier, when he had finally gotten off of work at about 2 AM.

* * *

_It couldn't have been any later than 2 AM when the last customer in the bar part of the popular restaurant left for the night. It had been a long evening racing all the way back to Domino City and then dealing with picky, cranky, and downright idiotic customers and then bitchy coworkers. And that wasn't even mentioning some of the other servers, such as this guy Valon or something, who had made it his personal goal in life to get on his nerves._

"_Well, look eh here, someone is certainly grumpier than they should be. What crawled into your ass, Jonouichi? Did some blonde bimbo reject you at the bar last night? Or maybe you got into a fight with whoever was idiotic enough to agree to be your lover," the brunet laughed._

"_Like it's any of your business what I do outside of work, asshole," he snarled, grabbing his backpack and opening the back door of the restaurant._

_However, as he tried to walk through the door and leave Valon behind, he just ended up walking into something else – or rather someone else. In front of him was the tall blue eyed brunet that he had met the other day, who also happened to be known as his boss. And by the looks of things, Seto had been just about to enter the restaurant himself, for whatever reason he had._

"_Katsuya, I would highly suggest that you learn how to watch were you're going before the next time that I have the __honour__ of bumping into you. I'm sure that it won't end as nicely next time," the brunet sarcastically requested, ignoring the gawking face of the other server in the background._

"_Yeah, yeah, whatever you say, Seto. What are you doing around here anyways? I thought that you did most of your rounds at prime business hours so that you could see everything at its busiest or some other shit like that. And you're not exactly one to come in from the back door either, now that I think about it," the blond questioned._

"_I'm sad to say that you are correct about that one. Under normal circumstances, I would never enter through the back door of my own restaurant, mutt. My cousin phoned me a few hours ago and requested that I drive you back to your apartment, after explaining the… short version of the most recent events. He also mentioned something about you being barely coherent when you're running on next to no sleep, not to mention that he apparently doesn't trust your driving on a normal day. Oh, and if you were anybody else, you wouldn't have lasted long after being later when you were only hired not too long ago."_

_Valon started to demand to know what was going on, but neither Jono felt like dealing with the annoying server, so he was ignored by not only his coworker but his boss too. Jono quietly followed Seto out of the building and into the fanciest car in the parking lot. He knew that Yugi had been right to phone Seto._

"_Thanks a lot for the ride, Seto, now, do you mind waking me up when we get there"_

* * *

That was the last time that he had slept, hours ago now. And it had only been for about 15 minutes or so at the times.

He tossed, and he turned.

His mind replayed the memory once more.

Sleep was unlikely to come to him tonight.


	13. Calming Breeze

**Alright, so this isn't a new chapter - so, unless you haven't read the story before or if you're rereading it, there's no point. However, go back to the beginning and read the prologue and that! I'm rewriting the story and reposting this because I messed up with replacing the chapter!**

A/N: Yes, I'm well aware how long it's been since the last time that I updated this story, and I'm truly sorry about that. I had been working all summer. Anyways, here's chapter 12 of Reflection. I hope that you'll enjoy.

Thank you for all of the reviews that I've received. I can't believe that I actually have over 50 reviews now!

I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh! or any of the characters.

* * *

**Reflection  
**_Chapter 12: Calming Breeze_

* * *

"Honda, I know that you're home, and that you're awake, you asshole, so let me in the fucking apartment. Your neighbors can't be that happy with you right about now, and I'm fairly certain that you don't want to get kicked out of here," Marik threatened, outside of his friend's door.

The door to the small apartment finally opened after being locked for the past half an hour, causing the tall blond to fall down onto his back, so that he was laying half in the hallway and half in the entrance of the apartment. The annoyed brunet was standing in the entrance of the apartment, wearing nothing but an old pair of boxer's, and looking none too impressed at his recent behavior. Maybe he had been wrong about Honda being awake.

"I don't know what the fuck you're trying to accomplish here by showing up at 12 o'clock in the morning, but get in here before I actually do get kicked out because of this. And just what made you think that I would be up at this time when I have to be at work at in just about, oh, I don't know, 7 hours from now?" Honda demanded.

Marik stood up as if nothing had just happened, before grabbing his suitcase from outside of the apartment, and walking inside the apartment, uncaring and not even sparing a glance at the half-naked man who was glaring at him.

"How the fuck do you suppose that I would know something as meaningless as your work schedule? It's not like I actually listen to what you tell me when you're talking about shit like that. Besides, I need to crash here tonight, and so, I needed to get inside somehow, especially now that you've gone and changed the damn locks again. Do you know how much work I had put into getting your last key copied?" he explained, as if this was completely normal.

"You got kicked out again?" he nodded, "What did you do this time around?"

"Pfft, like I have any fucking clue. The bitch told me some shit about being sick and tired of me disrespecting her all of the time, and that she never wanted to see this handsome face of mine again, or something along those lines. So, I left for good this time around. I'm not going back there again, I swear it."

"You're not moving in here with me, as long as I'm still alive and breathing."

He muttered a curse under his breath, betraying his true plans.

"Like I'd want to move into a dump like this, and with you of all people, it would be torture. I was actually thinking about moving to the big city. There seems to be a lot more action down there, and you know how much I love any sort of action."

"Great, now I'm going to have to phone Yugi to warn him about this new turn of events. So that he can barricade his door before you show up."

"Damn right you are. And what about Jono?"

"He can fend for himself."

* * *

One, two, three, four. One, two, three, four. He counted as he walked towards the small café that his older brother worked at almost every day, his feet moving to a steady rhythm that was only in his mind. He had the advantage, this time around. Ishizu had let him off of work half an hour earlier than usual, mostly because there was absolutely nobody in the shop today. Maybe he would actually be able to sneak up on him this time around, as unlikely as it seemed.

"Aibou, what are you doing here? I thought that you didn't get off of work for a little while yet. I was just about to walk over to Ishizu's art store to pick you up," a familiar baritone voice spoke up.

He turned around, surprised to find that Atemu was standing behind him. It took him a couple of moments to realize that he had literally walked right past the café while he had been preoccupied with his thoughts, much to his embarrassment.

"Ishizu let me off work early today because there wasn't a single customer in sight. So, I was going to try and sneak up on you, like you usually do to me," Yugi admitted, ignoring the blush on his face as he walked away.

The crimson eyed twin laughed to himself, "There was no need to do that, the only reason that I'm able to sneak up on you is because you're never paying attention to anything that's going on around you. Now, come inside and let me finish closing up shop for the day. It may not have been quiet here all day, but everyone's almost gone now."

Yugi nodded absently as he followed Atemu inside the café, noting the apron that was tied around the other's waist with a small smirk. It had been a whole week since the drama in Duelist had happened, and nobody had seen Bakura or Ryou happier than they were now, not that anyone had seen the couple more than a handful of times. Now, if only things as well on his end of it all. Between work and Jono being around the apartment a lot, Atemu and him had barely had a moment to themselves. And things probably weren't going to be any different tonight, so he was going to make the best of the 10 minutes he had between the café and the apartment.

"Hey you two, I have to ask you to get out now. This place is now closing, and we're not staying open just so you can continue your date for another hour," Atemu told the couple making out in the corner, and they slowly got up, walking out of the door.

The elder walked around the room, making sure that everything was in its place. "Alright, I think that's everything, so, we can go now, Yugi."

The apron may have been a good look on Atemu, but the tight jeans and black tank top that was hiding underneath looked about 5x better than the apron. He just was taking his nice, sweet time to appreciate the look without having to worry about whether or not someone he knew could notice him. Other than Atemu himself that was, who was currently doing the same thing that he was. Both of them were glad that they had the opportunity to properly look.

Atemu strolled over to him with a smirk on his face, before gently placing a soft kiss on his lips, much to his embarrassment. Silently, he followed the elder out of the café, waiting for a moment as he finished locking the place up before they started on the walk to the apartment. They talked quietly about the events of the day, making sure that they didn't walk too closely together, no matter how much he wanted to grab a hold of Atemu's hand.

"After you," Atemu said, opening the door of the apartment with a small bow.

"Thank you , mou hitori no boku," he thanked, walking just inside of the apartment, "Um, can you stay here for a moment? I want to ask you something, but I don't want Jono to hear me."

Atemu motioned for him to continue, closing the door as he stepped inside the apartment.

"Could you please sleep in my room tonight? Oh, um, I don't want to do _that_, I-I just want to be with you. We've been so busy the last week or so, and I miss you, Atemu, I really do. The few minutes walking home together aren't enough."

"Of course, I would love to do that. All you had to do is ask, Aibou."

As they walked into the kitchen area, the amethyst eyed twin was sure that his face vaguely resembled a tomato of the bright red variety. Not to mention that Jono had probably heard the whole conversation for some reason such as bad luck, and was about to tease him for wanting to sleep with his brother like they were 6 again or freak out on him because he realized that his relationship with his brother wasn't of the innocent kind. So, he was surprised (and rather pleased) when he saw that Jono wasn't even in the room, thus unable to hear the conversation he had just had with Atemu.

A piece of lined paper sitting on the kitchen counter caught his attention. It had definitely not been there when he had left for work sometime late this morning. Slowly, he walked over to the piece of paper, and read it quietly to himself.

"Hey you guys.

"Hopefully you've noticed that I'm not home because if you haven't by now, than I really underestimated your observation skills. Whatever. Seto phoned earlier and asked me to work today because some idiot called in sick on the busiest day of the week. So, I won't be getting back until about 2 or 3 in the morning. Just thought that I'd let you know that I haven't been kidnapped or anything like that.

"Jono."

Yugi smiled to himself, feeling slightly guilty at the rush of relief he felt once he read the note that Jono had left for them. He put the note back on the counter, before walking over to Atemu, who had laid down on the couch. The elder's crimson eyes carefully watched him as he did so. He closed his eyes, and let his body take control as he laid down on top of Atemu, and pressed a soft kiss on the other's lips.

"Aibou, what are you doing? Not that I really mind, but can't Jono walk in at any moment? I'm fairly certain that you didn't want Jono to know about us," Atemu asked, in a hushed whisper.

"That's actually completely impossible. Jono left a note on the kitchen counter, saying that Seto called him into work a while ago, so we have almost all of the time in the world," he whispered back.

A smirk grew on the crimson eyed twin's face, and he immediately pulled Yugi back down, wrapping one arm around his waist, possessively. Yugi responded enthusiastically, happier than he had been for the past few days. His hands were free to roam, and he gladly took the chance that he had to slip his hands underneath Atemu's shirt. His mind was filled with nothing but sweet nothings during the brief moments that they separated for air. Atemu's hand ventured further south than it ever had before, making him gasp ever so slightly, and it gave the elder the perfect chance to slip his tongue into his secret boyfriend's mouth.

Boyfriends. That's what they were, after all, even if only one other person knew about their relationship. The words almost seemed wrong yet, right, like a forbidden fruit that he had always secretly wanted, but he almost immediately felt guilty for taking it in the depths of the night, when nobody else was watching. It wasn't like the words "twin" or "brother" though, that had always felt wrong when he said them for whatever reason.

"Fuck this shit. How come whenever I come over here, you two are going at it like a couple of rabbits? Atemu, take your fucking hand off of Yugi's ass. Seriously, why can't you two just watch a movie and cuddle like every other damn couple out there? It would save me a lot of money on fucking therapy," an all too familiar voice interrupted them.

It only took the couple about 2 seconds to comprehend what was going on, and move their hands to more appropriate places. Bakura watched as Yugi hid his face in the other's chest, obviously embarrassed and a bit annoyed with the situation.

"I bet that you can't say that you and Ryou are one of those couples that just watch movies and cuddle. What are you doing here, anyways? Shouldn't you be over at Ryou's place, also going at it like a couple of rabbits?" Atemu demanded, never once loosening his hold on the younger twin.

"Ryou sent me over here to ask if the three of you wanted to eat dinner together, seeming he hasn't… had the chance to have breakfast with you guys all week. I'm not going to bother to ask though, because Jono is obviously not here, and the two of you… well, the two of you obviously already have plans for this evening."

The nuisance left, much to Yugi's pleasure. He placed another quick kiss on Atemu's lips before quickly grabbing the remote from the coffee table, and turned the television on to some random channel. Not that he had any intent to watch the show. He just hoped that Bakura had closed the front door behind him, instead of leaving it open, just to screw with them. And that Bakura wouldn't come back to question why they were watching the cooking channel.

* * *

"I would like it if you explained to me why you accepted my offer to work tonight when you look like complete crap. I don't appreciate it when my employees come to work when they're sick, no matter the reason, Katsuya. It never turns out well, for anyone," the tall brunet demanded to know.

"It's because I need the money," Jono answered, grabbing his bag, "And I noticed that Yugi and Atemu were gettin' a bit stressed out with me 'round all the time, so I decided that I would give 'em a bit of time to themselves for once."

Seto carefully watched the blonde from the door, silently noting that his condition was getting worse. Jono's cheeks were slightly flushed, but not in the good way, like when he was embarrassed or frustrated. He watched as the other's eyes became slightly confused as he took a step towards the door, as if it was taking up all of his energy just trying to walk. And yet, the idiot just kept on trying.

"I don't think that you should have even driven here, never mind work your whole shift, like you just did. And yet, like an idiot, you're still here after doing just that, and there's no way that I'm going to let you drive all the way back to your apartment, or anywhere at all, for that matter. At this point, I wouldn't be surprised if you passed out while you were driving," he told the blond.

"Hey, a-m I hearin' things or somethin'? Is Seto Kaiba of all people actually showin' concern for my well bein'?" the blond struggled to say.

Jono tried to smirk at him, and take another step towards the door, as if he was trying to prove that Seto's suspicions were just that, suspicions, even if it was just to himself. It didn't work out quite like he had wanted to, because his legs gave out on him once his foot touched the ground, not able to take the strain of walking any longer. And he would have face planted on the floor too, if Seto hadn't reacted fast enough, and easily caught him with one arm around his waist.

"S-Seto, I don't feel so good. Could you please take me home?" Jono pleaded, suddenly clutching his stomach.

Now that the brunet had physical contact with him, he was able to tell just how bad Jono's condition really was. It was obvious now that his body temperature was a lot higher than it was supposed to be, to the point that he was sure that the blonde in his arms would probably benefit from seeing a doctor. Not mentioning whatever pain his stomach was causing him. Damn it, he should have been able to notice this earlier on.

"Does it look like I'm about to abandon you here? There's no way that Atemu or Yugi are still awake, it's almost 3 AM right about now. You had better be fine with coming home with me, because you don't have much of a choice at this point in time," he snarled, angry at himself.

Jono nodded and tried to take yet another step, only to have his legs give out on him once again. Seto didn't even blink an eye as he readjusted his arm around the blonde's waist in order to pick him up. To him, it was quite obvious that they weren't about to get anywhere if they continued to work at the pace they were going. And he didn't think that Jono would be able to walk to the car without passing out, at this point in time.

"You know, if I didn't feel so fuckin' horrible right 'bout now, I would have clawed your eyes out for even tryin' this," Jono commented, secretly glad for the help.

"As if you would have been able to manage that," he responded.

Jono let out a strange moan as he was placed in the passenger seat of Seto's car. And suddenly, the warmth that had been coming from the older male disappeared, leaving him feeling like he was freezing. And then his stomach felt like it was going to tear itself apart. That was the only warning that he had as he shoved the door open so that he could empty his stomach's contents on the ground. Now, he felt absolutely horrible, and had absolutely no idea where Seto had gone off to.

"Here yo go, clean yourself up a bit. And could you please close the door? I don't want to see the mess that you just made," Seto asked him, coming out of nowhere and handing him a small garbage can and a box of Kleenex.

"Seto, why are you doing this for me?" he asked, a little while after they had left the restaurant.

"There are a couple of reasons, actually. For one, Yugi would probably get his stronger half to make sure that I was killed in some abandoned forest somewhere, so that I wouldn't be found ever again, if I didn't. And then I'm not exactly heartless enough to send someone who is clearly ill home, by themselves when they're driving home, especially when it's 3 in the morning. Besides, I do like you, Katsuya," Seto admitted.

And then Jono couldn't remember anything else, except for waking up for a brief moment to find that he was being carried into a house by Seto. The only difference this time around was that he wasn't shoved into the passenger seat of a car, and was instead gently placed on a nice, warm bed. But what would he give to still be up against that warm, comforting chest?

* * *

Something was telling him that he had to get up, no matter how much he didn't want to move a single inch. Was that his alarm from his phone? No, he had the day off of work today, so, there was absolutely no reason to get up earlier to needed. Still, the annoying ring continued, making him want to curl even further into his blanket. Finally, he fought against everything that his body was telling him, and opened his eyes, before grabbing the ringing cell phone off of the night table beside his bed.

"Hello?" he greeted, not even half awake yet.

"Still fucking sleeping, I see. At least you had the damn decency to answer your phone this time. I've now called you 6 fucking times in the past 20 minutes, you bitch," the person on the other end responded.

As usual, Marik had the absolute worst timing ever. Yugi switched ears as he rolled over, only somewhat surprised to find a bare chest, and only then realizing that there was a pair of arms around his waist. Oh right, Atemu and him had gone to bed after they had gotten tired of "watching television". Not that anything other than kissing had actually happened at any time during the night.

"Why the hell are you phoning me at… 7 o'clock in the morning, Marik?" Yugi demanded to know.

"I got kicked out of my mother's house for the last fucking time. So, instead of moving in with dear Honda here, I decided that I'm going to move to Domino City. Of course, I'll be staying with you until I've found my own apartment to stay in. I'm also leaving soon, so I'll be there in about 5 hours, maybe a bit less than that. Oh, you understand, and you're willing to supply a place to stay until I find an apartment? That's fucking great."

"What the fuck, Marik, don't you dare hang up on me!"

A click could be heard on the other end, signifying that Marik had indeed hung up on him. Atemu was staring at him when he stopped swearing at the phone, and was very obviously confused.

"God damn it, I just want to sleep!"

The phone had started ringing again. Apparently there was nobody out there that wanted to leave him alone on that glorious morning.


End file.
